Through Hard Times
by Wolfie30
Summary: Tris is an elementary school teacher, she meets Four the mysterious gym teacher. Should she get involved with him with all the drama she has around her already? Her mom has cancer, her dad died when she was younger, and her brother went on a mission trip leaving her with his daughter. She has to make the decision whether or not she will let people in with all of her baggage.
1. Chapter 1

The alarm next to my bed goes off by my head, I reach out and feel around for the off button. I groan, open my eyes, and squint at the flaring red digits that read 4:45 a.m. I sit up and stretch my arms above my head. I walk to my attached bathroom and use the restroom, brush my teeth, then throw my hair into a ponytail. After that I enter my walk in closet and pick out a black yoga pants, a blue sports bra, and a purple tight fitting shirt.

I go down the hallway to the kitchen and grab a banana to eat. I grab my armband, and strap it to my arm as I continue to eat my banana. I walk back to my room and unplug my iPhone from its charger, fitting it into the armband after I pick check for any messages. I pick up my earbuds and attach them to my phone and plug them in and I open Pandora, starting the song Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. A song that my dad loved from the Rocky IV soundtrack.

I walk to the front door and put on my black Nike shoes, lacing them up tight before starting out the door at exactly 5, locking it behind me. It's cool outside but it's only August so I know it will get colder than the 67 degrees it is now. I take a left at the sidewalk and start my run. I always enjoys my morning runs that I have done since I was in college, it helps me clear my mind.

I think back to a few days ago where I got a call from Caleb and Susan, his wife of 5 years, they are going on a mission trip to Haiti, because they are both very strong in their Christian faith. So while they are away I'm going to be taking care of their 6 year old daughter, Elizabeth. So I need to remember to set up my guest bedroom when I get back to my house. I also need to remember to call Mom, who is in Iowa City, and catch up on things with her.

A few years ago after my dad died in a car crash, we found out that she had CMML or Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia. She battled through chemotherapy and was cured, before a few months later they found it again. So she went to Mercy Iowa City, and I moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa after I finished getting my Bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago so I could be closer to her.

I am going to be starting my first year of teaching, at age 24, at Southdale Elementary School, which is just a few blocks from my house. I'm going to be the 2nd grade teacher, I'm looking forward to becoming Ms. Prior.


	2. Chapter 2

I take the next few days to prepare myself for bringing a child into my world. Caleb and Susan leave for Haiti in 2 days, and I'll have take care of Elizabeth for about 6 months while they are away.

It's around 2 in the afternoon, I make sure the guest bedroom is cleaned and ready for her and that the drawers are empty. I stocked the pantry and fridge with food, both healthy and not yesterday, so I should be good for awhile. I haven't really seen Elizabeth since she was a baby, because Caleb and Susan moved to Wisconsin, to be closer to Susan's parents. I'm not sure what she likes to do or what to play with, so I'm hoping Caleb or Susan will inform me.

 _Ding Dong._ The doorbell brings me out of my thoughts. I walk through the living room from the kitchen and open the front door. I see my brother, Caleb, Susan, and Elizabeth. Caleb got the good looks of the family with piercing green eyes, shaggy sandy blonde hair, and he is a good 5 inches taller than me at 5' 11". Susan is a perfect match for him, standing at 5' 8" she has curly, short blonde hair and big brown eyes. They made the sweetest little girl ever with her curly blonde hair down her back, green eyes, and the cutest little nose ever.

"Hi! Welcome, welcome" I exclaim, as I usher them into my living room.

"Hey sis, how's it going?" Caleb asks as he reaches out for a hug when he passes by me.

"Oh, you know same ol same ol. And how are you Susan?"

"Oh, excited definitely, I'm ready to help people share God" she answers.

I nod my head, she has always been selfless like that. "Well let me show you to your room Elizabeth"

I start down the hallway towards the guest room while Caleb goes back out to the car to finish unloading her stuff. Susan takes Elizabeth's hand and guides her behind me as I open the door to show off the tan room. There is a brown dresser in the corner, a queen sized bed with a purple comforter pushed against the wall, a brown desk next to the bed against the wall matching the dresser, and a closet door on the opposite wall. There is also a small white bookshelf at the foot of the bed that has been empty since I bought it.

I let her look around while I go and help Caleb bring in the suitcases filled with toys, books, and clothes. Susan starts to unpack the clothes into the dresser, while Elizabeth opened her suitcase full of toys and starts to lay them on the desk. She is neat and organized in her work, so I know that I'll have no problem with her at all.

I walk over to her and help her take out her toys, "Thanks" I hear her small, sweet voice.

I smile, she has always been shy, even as a baby, cautious of her surroundings, she was used to me when I still lived in Chicago and before she moved, but now she probably doesn't remember me. I'll have to earn her trust back. After we finish putting the toys on the desk, she moves to the other suitcase full of books and starts stacking them on the lower shelf. I make eye contact with Susan and I let her know that I am going to go talk with Caleb, she nods.

Back in the living room I see Caleb sitting down on my grey leather couch his legs up on the coffee table, I walk over next to him and plop down.

He throws his arm over my shoulders and pulls me into him, "Thanks for doing this sis. This can be a time for you two to bond, get to know each other"

"Ya I know, it's just a bit overwhelming, I haven't really looked after a child, never really babysat, so it'll be a new experience. Plus it will help me become a better teacher"

"You'll get used to it. It's really fun though, like a new adventure every day. Especially with all of the crazy things she thinks up"

"Ya, I feel sorry for her if she has your imagination"

"Hey!" he exclaims, feigning hurt.

"I'm just saying, remember that time you made a mud pie, then gave it to the neighbor kids. They were hacking up some pretty gross stuff the next few days"

"Okay, that was one time! But I remember a time where you thought it would be funny to take the Thanksgiving pie mom made, and give it to a friend, whose birthday you forgot as a present. Mom was so mad at you!" He laughs to himself.

"Okay, you two, quick bickering, Caleb, we need to get back on the road if we want to make it back to Chicago tonight" Susan says, cutting off our flashback in time.

I check the time and am surprised to see that it is already 6, and they have a 5 hour drive back to their home.

"Okay do you have a schedule or something that she uses? Like when she wakes up or when her bedtime is?" I ask curious.

"Ya, I felt a sheet that lists those times, and some of her favorite foods, games, and activities" Susan answers.

I feel somewhat relieved by that, but I'm still going to need to learn by experience. I stand up and hug Caleb one last time, "Stay safe, write me as often as you can, okay?"

"Ya, don't worry sis, we'll be fine, take care of her for us."

"I will, don't doubt my skills"

I get a little laugh out of him, and I see some of the tension leave his body, I kiss his cheek then head over to Susan.

"Have a great flight! And try to keep my brother sane please?"

She giggles, "Of course Beatrice. Have fun with our little lady"

"Always"

On the front step, they say their 'good-byes' and 'I love you's to Elizabeth again then they head out the door into their silver sudan. Waving one last time as we see them disappear down the street. I look back to Elizabeth, take her hand and lead her inside.

"So what do you want for supper?"

"Can I have a peanut butter sandwich and apples please?"

"Of course you can" I say with a smile at her politeness. I make my way to the pantry in the kitchen take out the bread and peanut butter. I make her sandwich, then go to the fridge and take out the apples. I cut them up with a knife and put them on a plate. I slide the plate across the kitchen table where she has sat herself down.

She eats it all up then carefully, with the plate in her hand, walks over to the sink and rinses off her dish. She turns and looks back at me with a tired expression.

"Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed?"

She nods her head at me and walks to the edge of the kitchen where her room is down the hall. I can tell she is waiting for me so I stand up rinse off my plate and put it with hers in the sink, and walk with her silently to her room.

Once in bed, I turn around to leave when I hear her, "Can you read me a book?"

I look back and see her holding up an _Amelia Bedelia_ book. So I sit on the edge of the bed and read her the funny story where Amelia is in charge. By the time I'm done, Elizabeth is sleeping soundly next to me. I put the book back on the shelf, shut off the light, and close the door.

When I make it back to my room around 9, I'm already exhausted, so I change, set my alarm, and get ready for bed. I read the sheet Susan left for me in Elizabeth's room and see that she normally wakes up around 8, so I should still have time for my morning runs. I am left with this thought as I let the darkness take over.


	3. Chapter 3

I wake up the next morning at my normal 4:45, and get ready for my run again making sure I have my phone with me. But this time before I leave I check in on Elizabeth, she is curled up in a ball facing the wall.

I leave the house and make sure to lock the door behind me, I start my run after going left at the sidewalk. I try to make a plan of what to do with her when I get back. I know that her back to school night is tonight, so we'll have to go to the store and pick out her school supplies. And I need to go in before back to school night starts, because we have a staff meeting. Maybe I can take her to Southdale park and she can make some friends.

I ponder these things as I finish my run, I check the time and see that I have been out for 50 minutes. I take out my house key from under my phone, in my armband and unlock the door. I walk to my room and get ready for a shower.

When I'm done I change into jeans and an oversized pink sweater that I always remember having. I blow dry my hair, then throw it up into a bun. I walk down the hall and open Elizabeth's door, I see her facing me. But what I'm worried about is the tears that are streaming down her face.

I rush into the room and sit on the bed beside her, "Hey, hey, hey! What's wrong?"

"I miss mommy and daddy" she whimpers as she sits up.

I pull her into my arms and stroke her hair as she cries into my chest. "I know they are gone, but they still love you. They will always be with you in your heart, you know that right?"

She nods, "But they still aren't here with me"

"I know. Do you want to hear a story of when your daddy and I were left alone for a week during the summer, while our parents went to a wedding in Florida?" She nods her head, "Well, I think I was a little older than you now and your daddy was 11. He thought he was old enough to take care of the two of us, so Mom and Dad left him in charge. Now that was a bad idea. For the first day we were okay, he could make us peanut butter sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. But then on the third day he started to panic, we ran out of bread because that was the only thing we had been eating.

"He tried to feed me candy from the Easter box that we had." Elizabeth giggled at her father's craziness. "We never washed the dishes either, so they were piling up. I thought it was a week of freedom so I didn't shower or brush my hair at all. We probably looked like little monsters." I say with a little laugh, "I don't think we went outside at all, otherwise the neighbors would've thought we were insane. By the time our parents got home the house was a pit, we looked and smelled like trolls, and there was no more food."

Elizabeth was laughing so hard she was crying. "Daddy's weird!" She exclaims through her laughs.

"Yes, he was, and he still is! Are you better now?"

"Ya, thanks Auntie"

"Anytime Lizard"

"Lizard?" She questions.

"Yup, that's you, Lizzy is short for Elizabeth and now I'm making Lizzy Lizard, my name for you" I reply. She giggles at my response. "Okay kiddo, let's get you ready for breakfast, then maybe we can go to the park later?"

"Yes!" she exclaims. I let her pick out her own outfit of jeans, and a red long sleeved shirt. She grabs a black jacket and ties it around her waist.

"What do you want to do want for breakfast, I have cereal, toast, pancakes, waffles, and fruit." I open the pantry and let her look around, "See anything you like?"

"Can I have some cereal please?"

"Sure, what kind do you want?"

"That one" she points to the Honey Nut Cheerios. I pull out the cereal and put it in a bowl with milk, then give it to her.

"Okay so today we need to get you ready for 1st grade, how does that sound? We'll get your school supplies then we can go meet your teacher tonight!"

She gives me a big closed mouthed smile because she has her mouth full. After her breakfast I get her ready in my grey Honda Accord and we are off to Wal-Mart to get her supplies. We spend about 2 hours in Wal-Mart finding her materials.

At one point Elizabeth played hide-and-seek with me, I had a mini panic attack, when I couldn't find her. Then she thought that it was absolutely hilarious when she popped out from behind the clothes next to the school supplies and scared me.

We get to the check out and load the items onto the conveyer belt. She grabs a Kit Kat from the candy rack and looks at me with big puppy dog eyes. It is so irresistible, so I let her place it with the other items. The total comes out to be $132.89, so I pay with a swipe of my card.

Lizard jumps in front of the cart and hops on the end of it, so that I'm pushing her backwards. We make it to the car with her laughing the whole way along. We load the car and are on the road in about 10 minutes, I check the time and see that it is around noon.

I turn around and face Elizabeth, "What sounds good for lunch? We can go out to eat."

"I wanna go out to eat."

"Anywhere special?"

"Nope I don't care."

"Okay, how about we eat at Culver's."

She nods her head, so I turn the corner into the Culver's driveway and park. We go inside and order to go. She orders a corn dog and ice cream, while I order a ButterBurger. We go back to the car, and I drive home and we eat our food at the table.

After lunch we clean up the counters and put the dishes away in the dishwasher. I help her put her curly blonde hair into a high ponytail so it is out of her way. We grab all of her school supplies and organize them with her name on them, and put them into the new pink backpack that she got.

"Back to School night starts at 5:30, and I need to be there at 4. Right now it is 2:30, so how about we go to the park and play before we get down to business?" I ask.

"Okay!" she replies.

I throw her backpack on my shoulder, make sure I have my keys, and phone before I take her hand. We head out the door and towards the school, as I walk I notice a skip in her step, and I'm happy that she is in a good mood.

We make it to the school park in 3 minutes, it helps to be only 2 blocks away from the school. The park is mainly blue poles, with a smaller baby side and small slides, then it has a bigger side that has harder obstacles and the long twisty slide. The swings are on the far side by the rock climbing wall and the teeter-totter. She wants to go on the swings first, I put her bag down by the edge of the playground where we won't forget it. I push her for about 30 minutes while she giggles the whole way. She goes down all of the slides at least twice each, before she surprises me by tagging me than running.

"You're it! Now you've got to chase me!" she exclaims.

"Oh, you're going to get it missy!" I start to run after her, trying to dodge all of the bars and poles that make up the playground. I finally reach her and pick her up, making her squeal in surprise. I put her down then check the time, 3:48.

"Lizzard, we need to get going!"

"Okay" she says with a little pout. She walks over to me with her bag and starts towards the main entrance on the other side of the brick school. Before going in I take a deep breath to calm my nerves.

Once inside I make my way through the hallways to the cafeteria. I already know where some of the places are because of my short tour shortly after I accepted the job. I notice that there are some of the teachers here already.

"You need to behave for a little bit, Auntie needs to talk to some people for awhile. So can you go sit down over there until I come get you please?" I ask her after pointing to the back corner of the cafeteria where no one is.

"Yes, I'll be good" She answers before making her way over to one of the tables and pulling out a book that she had packed into her backpack.

I make my way over to where the others are and introduce myself to a tall, mocha skinned girl with short black hair, "Hi, I'm Tris Prior, I'm the new 2nd grade teacher!"

"Hi Tris! I'm Christina Kravitz, the 1st grade teacher!"

"Oh, you're going to be teaching my-"

I get cut off by a microphone screeching, "Welcome Staff"


	4. Chapter 4

I sit through the meeting listening to the principal, Mr. Silverson, talk about how this year is going to be the best yet. And how they are excited about the new renovations that were made to the gym and library over the summer.

At the end of his 30 minute speech, he says, "Now, let's welcome our new 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Beatrice Prior, who will be replacing Mrs. Maitlan who retired last year. Ms. Prior, would you like to come up and share something about yourself?"

I slowly stand up and look at all the eyes on me, making me blush slightly. I walk to the front of the room, "Hi, as Mr. Silverson said I'm Beatrice Prior, but I would prefer Tris. I moved here to Cedar Falls about 4 months ago, after I graduated from the University of Chicago. I'm really excited to get to know all of you! Oh, and I'm going to be taking care of my niece, Elizabeth, for the next 6 months" People turn to look at her, as I point her out in the back of the room.

At the sound of her name, Elizabeth looks up from her books, she sees me standing in the center of the room. She gives me a grin and a wave of her hand, people chuckle at her response. I smile and wave back at her, as I go back to my seat.

"Well everyone, let's get started on a new school year!" Mr. Silverson exclaims.

People clap, then start filtering out of the cafeteria, but some people like Christina linger behind. I'm introduced to Mr. Johnston, the 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Jacobs, the kindergarten teacher, and Ms. Timothy, the office secretary.

After they introduce themselves, they head to their classrooms, except for Christina who stays with me. I walk back over to Elizabeth, as she is putting her books back in her bag.

"Elizabeth, this is Ms. Kravitz, she is going to be your teacher this year."

"Hi" she responds shyly.

"Hi Elizabeth! You can call me Ms. K, do you have a nickname that you like to be called, like Lizzy?"

Elizabeth laughs, probably because that's like the name I gave her, "Sure, you can call me Lizzy, just like Auntie calls me Lizard!" Yup, I was right.

Christina throws me a grin with her response, "Okay then _Lizzy,_ let's take you to my classroom where you can drop off your stuff. Then we can wait for your classmates to come" she turns to me, "And I'll take you both on your official tour of the school."

This is Lizzy's first time in the school, Caleb made sure to register her as soon as he knew that they were going on the mission trip, about 2 months ago.

Christina leads us out of the cafeteria and into the music room through the connecting hallways. I see a large classroom with a whiteboard in front, and long steps filled with chairs leading to the back of the room. At the desk is a older lady, she stands up and makes her way over to us.

"Hello dear, my name is Alice Kelly," She shakes my hand then Lizzy's hand, "Aren't you just a sweet little thing, your name is Elizabeth right?"

"Ya, but I go by Lizzy now." She says as she looks up to Christina with a smile.

"Lizzy, I like it, a beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

"Thank you Mrs. Kelly" Lizzy acknowledges.

Christina cuts in, "Okay we better get moving on, bye Mrs. Kelly!"

"It was nice to meet you Mrs. Kelly" I say. We walk down the hallway, Christina explains where everything is and who everyone is. We pass the art room and turn right down the next hall, getting into the older kids' classrooms. At the end of the hallway is the 6th graders, the oldest class at this school. We turn around and go back after we talk to Mr. Carney, the 6th grade teacher. We walk all the way to the other end of the building to the kindergarten wing, she then takes us to the office to show us where the nurse's and principal's offices are.

Finally, she takes us to the gym, after walking in I notice the windows lining the top of the wall, letting in lots of natural light. There is a rock wall located on one side of the gym and a stage area on the other. There are basketball hoops down and ready to play on, with a ball cart against the wall.

But what I notice the most is the tall man who has his back to us because he is checking things in the closet on the farthest wall. He is wearing a dark blue shirt and black basketball shorts. I see two black marks crawling up his neck, indicating that he might have a tattoo.

"Four!" Christina calls out.

The man turns around quickly at the sudden intrusion and my eyes widen at the sight of him. From across the gym I notice that he has a strong jaw, short dark brown hair, a slightly crooked nose, and a thin upper lip compared to his full bottom lip. He also has scruff on his face like he hasn't shaved in a few days, I won't lie, he is good-looking.

I realize that I'm stuck in place with Lizzy pulling on my hand. I walk forward and try to make it seem natural that I was just full out staring at him. Christina is trying not to laugh at my reaction so I shoot her a glare.

He makes his way over to us, "Hi, I'm Four." He reaches out his hand for me to shake.

"Tris" I respond, shaking his hand twice. Man, he has a strong grip. Focus, Tris. Focus.

"Lizzy!" Lizzy says, offering her name, with a giggle. Four cracks a small lopsided smile. "So, you're my gym teacher, what are we going to be doing in class?"

He crouches down to her height and starts talking to her as I turn to Christina with big eyes and mouth 'Wow'. She laughs and grabs my arm, pulling me away from them.

"I know right! That's why I saved the best for last. I was like that when I first met him too."

"Wow, I mean look at him, wow!"

"Ya, don't get too attached, he's really closed off. We hardly know anything about him, I'll tell you more later" she rushes out. I look at her confused on why she stopped so quickly. I then feel like somebody's watching me.

My eyes widen when I realize why she did that, so I slowly turn around to see Four standing behind me with his arms crossed and a stern face. Then I hear Lizzy giggling behind him, so I lean over and see her laughing at my uneasiness. I narrow my eyes at her, making her laugh even harder. I see Four try to withhold a smirk from the corner of my eye.

"So," I say holding out the 'o', "It was nice to meet you Four, but I had better be getting ready for the students." I try to get over the awkwardness of this, and I'm not sure how well it's going.

"Okay, bye" he replies and turns back around, getting back to work.

I give Christina a surprised face and we leave the gym. It's only when we make it back to her classroom do I realize that it is 4:57.

"Thanks Christina for everything! I'm going to go and make sure everything in my room is ready"

"Okay, it was great showing you around, and I'm sure you'll be great to work with!"

"Lizard, you are going to stay here with Ms. K, you'll get to meet your new friends okay?"

"Okay!"

"I'll be back to get you in a few hours, if you get bored I'm right down the hall"

"We are so going to talk later" Christina proclaims flashing me a smile as I'm about to leave her classroom.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I respond, knowing that she is talking about my reaction to Four. I smile to myself thinking about Four, but I really need to stop, I know nothing about him. I shouldn't be thinking about him all the time, I need a distraction.

I walk into my room, number 19. It faces the back of the school, so you can see the playground from the windows. I had already put up my decorations when I had my first tour of the school. The desks are set up in pods facing each other, 4 in a pod and there are 5 pods, for the 18 children in my class. My desk is in the corner by the whiteboard, the alphabet is printed on the wall above the board. There is a bulletin board that says 'Welcome Back'. There are cubbies and hooks in the back for the kids to put their stuff.

I straighten out the desks and put the final details into place, I have my chart next to me of the names of the kids so that I can get to know them. I grab the name tags that I will give the children when they pick out a seat.

The final minutes tick by as I see some kids walk down the hall to find their classes, I am getting more nervous each minute. But, this will be a helpful distraction from Four, who is all I can seem to think about.

The first child comes into the classroom, officially starting the next chapter of my life.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi folks, this is my first attempt at a fan-fiction story, and I only did it because my younger brother convinced me to. I'm not sure how well I'm doing, and I want to know if you want me to switch up the point-of-views or not. And if you have any suggestions that you want me to incorporate. Thanks for reading!**

It has been a week since the Back-to-School night, I was nervous to meet the parents, but as more people came I was more at ease. I have 10 girls and 8 boys in my class, so hopefully there won't be any problems. In the end, my students seemed to be well mannered and polite. I think this year is going to be great.

It is the first day of school and I have Lizzy up, eating breakfast with her grumpy face on because she didn't want to wake up. School starts at 8:45, so it's not that bad, but I'm used to getting up really early.

I already went on my run this morning, showered, and I'm dressed in a white shirt and tan capris, ready to leave. I make sure that Lizzy's outfit is appropriate for the cloudy weather that has dropped into the 50's. She is wearing a white shirt with a black long sleeved undershirt and jeans. I helped her put her curly hair into a bun, out of her way. This Iowa weather is unpredictable, one moment it's 80 and sunny, the next it's 40 and raining. I'm kind of used to it growing up in Chicago, but this is more drastic.

Since we are going to walk to school today we leave at 8:00, so that I can make sure everything is ready to go. And I know some of the moms want pictures of their child, so they are usually early on the first day.

We walk down the sidewalk, Lizzy is a little bit in front of me skipping her way along. Her backpack is sliding up and down her back with each hop she takes, since it is empty. When we get inside, I take her to Christina's classroom, knowing that Caleb would want me to have a picture of her with her teacher.

"Hi Ms. K!" Lizzy exclaims as she skips into the room.

"Good morning Lizzy! How are you?" Christina asks.

"Oh, I'm great, but when Auntie woke me up this morning, not so good. I didn't want to wake up! I was so tired!" Then she holds her hand up and tries to whisper, "Auntie was a little grumpy this morning too."

I narrow my eyes at her, she must have figured out that I heard her, so she promptly turns around and walks to her desk. Christina is looking at me with an amused smile.

"Save it" I state.

"What? I didn't say anything" she replies.

"Good, don't say anything. I need to get a picture of you and Lizzy, I know Caleb would want that."

"Okay, Lizzy come here please."

She walks over to us with a questioning face, but when I hold up my phone indicating I'm going to take her picture. She lights up and stands next to Christina. She wraps her arms around her, and Christina bends down a little bit so it is easier for both of them.

"Okay, ready? One, Two, Three" I snap the picture.

"Was it a good one?" Lizzy asks coming over to me trying to get a look at my phone. I bend down to her height and show her the beautiful picture.

"Yup, it was a good one. Daddy's going to love it! Okay, I need to get going, you have fun. Tell Ms. K if you need anything."

"Okay, have a good day Auntie!" she exclaims as she throws her arms around my neck from my bent over stance. I wrap my arms around her, squeezing her back.

I turn around to leave as I hear Christian say, "Hey Tris, we still haven't had our talk yet."

"Shut it Christina!" I exclaim turning my head to face her while I'm still walking forward.

Right after I exit the room, I run into a wall, then I feel arms pull on my shoulders, keeping me balanced. I look up and realize that it was Four, who was probably walking towards the gym from the main entrance. My eyes widen and I feel a blush rise up my neck, I start to stutter some gibberish.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry. Oh man, I'm going to stop talking now." He raises a questioning eyebrow, and I blush even harder, I take a deep breath and say, "I'm sorry, I didn't watch where I was going."

"You're alright, see you later" he replies, knowing that I'm taking my class to the gym later today.

"Bye" I stand here awkwardly to his back as he walks away. I turn around and head to my room next door. It is 8:13, so I put down all the chairs down because they were on the desks after the janitors put them up to clean the floors.

The first kid, Emerson, comes in with her mom, "Hi! Welcome, Emerson, how are you today?"

"I'm good, excited to see my friends again!"

"That's good!"

"Can we get a picture really quick, Ms. Prior?" her mom asks.

"Ya, sure" I move over to Emerson and wrap my arm around her shoulders. Her mom snaps a picture then she leaves for work. Others start to trickle in and I have to get more pictures with the kids and greet them.

After the final bell rings I have all of the kids sit in their desks, I explain the rules of the class. I write the schedule on the board:

Introducing Games

Gym

Lunch

Recess

Pack up

Then we have an early out for the first week at 12:30

I have everyone sit in a circle on the floor, we go around saying our names with a fruit that starts with the same letter of their name. There was Jack-fruit Jace, Raisin Riley, Cherry Clare, Strawberry Sandy, Cantaloupe Chloe, Banana Bryce, Watermelon Will, Grape Grace, Blueberry Breanna, Melon Megan, Apple Anna, Kiwi Kyle, Avocado Andy, Starfruit Sam, Elderberry Emerson, Jujube John, Apricot Addison, and Sour apple Suzy. I had to help some of them out with their names like John and Emerson.

After our games, I get everyone ready for the gym in a straight line. We walk down the hallway and into the gym. Four has a giant colorful parachute out, I remember playing something like this when I was a kid.

"Umm, do I stay in here?" I ask him not sure of what to do.

"You can do whatever you want" he replies.

"Okay, I'll just stay" I respond not quite sure what to do if I leave.

"Okay"

He lines the kids up on the baseline and he introduces himself and the game. He then lets the children make a circle around the parachute, he goes to one side grabbing on to it. He nods his head to the opposite side of the parachute from him indicating that I should go there. So I walk up from the wall and stand in between Sam and Addison. Everyone grabs onto the parachute and Four shouts out his commands.

"If you have red on run under the parachute and find a new spot."

The kids with red squeal and run under the parachute. Once the chute goes back down I look at Four and see him looking back at me, I seem him smirk and then he shouts out his next command.

"If you are wearing white, find a new spot" I look down and realize that I'm wearing white, great.

I find a new spot closer to Four, just 3 kids away from him. I send him a glare for making me run. He just gives me his smirk. I know that he won't call out black, because that is what he's wearing. We continue this for awhile longer, him making me run more. We end up on opposite sides again.

"If you are in 2nd grade, find a new place" Everyone yells and runs like crazy finding spots by their friends.

One of the students yell out a command, "Now the teachers find a spot!" They throw the parachute up in the air. Four and I run under the chute, we almost run into each other switching spots, when we pass each other Four gives me a smile, the first real smile I've seen out of him. I smile back at him.

Once gym was over the students and I went back to the classroom to grab their lunch bags, then I lead them to the cafeteria. I make my way over to the teacher's lounge and sit by Christina with my lunch bag.

"How's Lizzy doing?"

"Oh, she's great, making lots of friends. I think she will fit in just fine here." Christina replies.

"Thank goodness, I thought her shell would come out and she would be the shy girl in the corner."

We continue making small talk until the recess bell rings. I walk outside and sit at the bench facing the playground watching the students let off their energy. Lizzy comes up to me and gives me a hug.

"I really like it here!" she says.

"I'm glad you do." I hear a few people yelling her name, "Your friends want you, better go play, I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, bye!"

Christina sits by me after Lizzy leaves, "That girl is all kinds of crazy."

"You should see her at home" I explain. I see Lizzy go up to Four, who is watching the playground and leaning against the side of the building. I furrow my eyebrows as they talk for a little bit then Lizzy laughs and go back to playing with her friends.

"That girl has a death wish, I've never seen anyone go up and talk to Four willingly and be so comfortable while doing so."

"I'm just wondering what they were talking about."

The end of recess bell rings and the kids start to file into the school, I catch up to Lizzy and grab her arm. I bend down to her height.

"What were you talking to Four about?" I ask.

"I asked him if he made you run."

"What are you talking about?"

"I asked him when you have gym and I have gym before you, so I told him that when you come in to make you run" she explains with a smile, "He said he did, but I was just making sure that he did as he said. I've got to go Auntie, see you later"

"Bye" I trail off as I stand upright. Looking around I spot Four staring at me from across the crowd of kids, he smirks at me then disappears inside the building.


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own any characters. I'm going to do a Four point-of-view next chapter unless you want me to keep it in only Tris. Let me know.**

The rest of the week passes the same way, games in the morning, then an elective, lunch, and recess. Southdale goes by a six day rotation, so on Day 1 we go to gym, Day 2 music, Day 3 art, Day 4 guidance (someone comes in and talks to the kids), Day 5 gym again, and Day 6 is music and art.

On Friday we had gym, instead of the parachute Four had out the squishy colored balls, set out on the half court line. We played dodge-ball, rather than playing this time, Four and I were the refs, telling people to sit out when they got hit. We sat on the stage about 5 feet apart, while they played focusing on the game.

About halfway through the game I noticed he wasn't really paying attention, he was staring at the opposite wall with his eyebrows furrowed. I wanted to ask him what was up, but I'm pretty sure that would've turned awkward really quick. And I have a feeling that he isn't the kind of guy to share his problems, so I let him be.

It's now Saturday, today I want to see my mom, and it will be good for Lizzy to see her grandma. I also have to do some yard work, so I'll have Lizzy help me out. I already went on my run, and showered, now I'm eating cereal waiting for Lizzy to wake up. I let her sleep in longer than she usually does, so she's not up yet.

Around 8:30 I hear rustling in her room, a few minutes later she comes into the kitchen after using the bathroom.

"Morning Auntie" she mumbles.

"Good morning Lizard" I reply getting her a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, which I found out to be her favorite breakfast. I set the bowl down in front of her to eat.

"What are we doing today?" she asks after she swallows her first bite.

"Well, I was thinking that we could do some yard work this morning, then we can go visit Grandma, when we get home, you can write a letter to your parents and I can send it out tomorrow"

"Okay, are we seeing Grandma Helen?" she asks referring to Susan's mom.

"No sweetie, we are going to see Grandma Natalie, my mother."

"Okay! I haven't seen her in awhile" she responds finishing her breakfast, putting her dish in the sink, like she does every day.

I give her a sad smile, "I know Lizard."

After I get her dressed in jeans, a green shirt, and a black jacket, we go outside and enjoy the sunny 63 degree weather. I grab out the rake and start to gather the leaves in my small front yard. Lizzy asks to help so I let her rake the leaves while I pick up the sticks and twigs, putting them into the brown recycling bucket. We surprisingly have a lot of leaves and sticks for it only being the beginning of September.

"Look Auntie! I made a leaf pile! Can I jump in it?"

"Oh of course you can!" I exclaim. She puts her rake down and jumps into the pile, then she starts to make a leaf angel.

Laughing, she continues to move her arms and legs around in the pile, "Come join me!"

"Okay" I laugh. I pretend to jump on her, making her squeal and move away. I lay down so that our heads are next to each other, but our bodies are facing away from each other. I grab out my phone and take a selfie of us in the leaves. I look at the picture and see that her eyes light up her face along with her bright smile, she's perfect.

Afterwards we make sure to clean up our mess of leaves, and I start to mow the lawn. Then we move to the backyard and clean up and mow. As I'm moving the mower back into my one stall garage I hear Lizzy yell.

"Hi Four!" My eyes widen when I turn around and see Four with basketball shorts and a skin tight shirt, it's not anything different than I've seen before. But this time I can see a line of sweat glistening on his face, and he looks down right sexy. He is standing on the sidewalk in front of my house where Lizzy is.

I shake my head and back around finishing the task at hand, though I keep an ear out as I can faintly hear them talk.

"Hi Lizzy how are you?" Four asks slightly out of breath. It seems like he's on a run, that must mean that he lives somewhere around here. That thought lingers in my mind as I hear Lizzy's response.

"I'm good, just doing yard work"

"I can see that, you have a lot of leaves in your hair" I realize that if I go out and talk to him, I would be in the same situation. I am probably red faced, leaves in my hair, and sweat everywhere from working. I look very appealing right now, note the sarcasm. I had better go out there before Lizzy says something embarrassing.

I walk out of the garage after trying to smooth out my hair, or at least get some of the leaves out of it. I stand next to Lizzy about 5 feet away from him.

"Hello Four, how are you?" I ask like I wasn't eavesdropping in on their conversation.

His eyes widen, yup I must look really bad, "Good, I'm good."

I nod my head awkwardly, "That's good."

"Well, I should get back to my run, it was nice to see you two,"

"You too Four" Lizzy expresses for the both of us.

Before he goes off, he talks a step towards me and whispers, "You look good Tris." Then he's off without seeing or waiting for my response, which I'm glad for because I'm sure I'm beet red. Who would've thought that it was Four to say something embarrassing.

Lizzy giggles, "You're blushing! You like him don't you!"

"What? Of course not!" I exclaim feeling the heat continue to rise up my neck. I don't like him, that I know of, I mean I don't even know him that well. But he is intriguing, and I do want to know more. Maybe I do like him but I'm definitely not going to show it.

"Daddy told me that whenever you blush you're embarrassed or angry. And he said something that embarrassed you. I just know it!" she says sounding proud of herself.

"I'm not talking about this with you, let's get freshened up then we can go visit Grandma."

"Yup, he definitely said something embarrassing" she exclaims as she walks inside changing her shirt. I groan and take a quick shower, I'm back outside with Lizzy in 15 minutes. We on the road at 10:15 with her reading Junie B. Jones, she is a smart 1st grader, I'll give her that. Part way through the trip we stop at McDonald's and eat in the car.

We make it to Iowa City in 90 minutes, in the hospital we go to the north end of the building to the cancer department. We get to her room, number 236, on the second floor, I knock lightly and wait for her reply.

"Come in"

I open the door with one hand while Lizzy is gripping onto my other, "Hi, mom" I go over to hug her, "How are you holding up?"

"Hi darlings, I'm good, I'm good, It's fine here and I should be let out in a few days" She replies. She is only here now because she had another round of chemo a few days ago, and they are just making sure that she is fit to leave. She has a small house in Iowa City that she goes to in between her weekly rounds of chemo, and they don't want her going long distances so I come visit her.

I take a look at her appearance, she is in a white hospital gown with an IV in her left hand. She is sitting up in bed with a light blue blanket on her legs. She is wearing one of Dad's red bandanas on her head, she cut her brown hair short so that she didn't have chunks of her hair fall out, it would be easier for her.

"That's good. At least they are letting you out" I say, she nods her head.

"Hi darling, come here see Grammy," she commands to Lizzy. She releases my hand and climbs the bed to sit on Mom's lap. "How are you holding up Elizabeth? I know without your parents can be hard"

"I'm fine, Auntie is making it fun for me"

"That's good," she looks up to me with a thankful smile. I sit down into the chair beside her bed. We continue to make small talk, until the topic I tried to avoid came up, just like every time I visit her.

"So any cute boys at the new school?"

"No Mom, I'm not seeing anyone"

"Not even a crush?" she insists.

"No Mom!"

"She blushes whenever Four is around" Lizzy states. Ugh, I wish she would just keep her mouth closed.

"Four?" Mom questions, whether the man or the name I don't know.

"No it's nothing, please Mom just drop it"

"I think I need to know more about this Four person, don't you think?"

"No"

"He's the gym teacher, I think he is cute, just like the other girls at school, they all think he is cute too. I hear them talk about him at recess" I groan into my hands.

"It's nothing, please drop it" I say harshly.

"Okay, okay" Mom says then she turns to Lizzy and says a little quieter, "I think she does have a crush"

"MOM!"

"Sorry," I give her a stern look and she corrects herself, "Okay I'm not sorry" I shake my head at her.

Around 6 the nurse comes in with Mom's supper, so Lizzy and I go down to the cafeteria to get our own hospital food. I eat a ham sandwich and Lizzy eats a peanut butter sandwich with apple juice.

We stay with her until visiting hours are over at 8, I stand up give her a kiss and a hug. Lizzy does the same, we say good-bye then leave the room. We'll probably visit her next weekend at her house.

On the way home I realize that Lizzy fell asleep so I turn the music down a little bit. When we get home I carefully pick her up and take her inside to her room, I guess she'll write her letter to her parents tomorrow. I also get ready for bed, and fall asleep soon after my head hits the pillow.

 **Thank you guys for the reviews. Geust, I'm probably going to do something like that. I'm just figuring out all of the details.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm going to keep it in Tris' point-of-view because of a suggestion I was given. Thank you for reading!**

I wake up earlier than my alarm on Sunday, 4:23, I know I'm not going to fall asleep again, so I get up. I change into my running clothes, a tight fitting green shirt and yoga pants. I walk down the hall, into the kitchen, and grab an apple. As I eat it, I think of which church we should go to, I know Caleb would want me to keep her in church.

I've heard of a few churches that people go to around here like Orchard Hill Church, or Prairie Lakes Church, they are both Christian churches. I might go to Orchard Hill, it starts at 10:45, and it is within walking distance. I start my run, changing my route to figure out where Orchard is, so we can walk there later today.

When I get back from my hour run, I shower and change into a short sleeved, knee length dress. The top part is white and tight fitting, and the bottom part is flowing and a peach color. There is a white bow in the middle of the of the dress. I wear white flats and curl my hair. I want to get a haircut soon, because it is getting messy.

It's only 8, so I grab a book that I got from the library that I've wanted to read and start reading it. I read 5 chapters into the book, then start making breakfast. I gather the supplies for pancakes and eggs and I make them in a skillet. Then I put bacon in the microwave and heat that up also. I set the food on the table with napkins and milk.

I'm done at 9:30, so I go into Lizzy's bedroom to wake her up.

"Lizard, it's time to wake up. We need to go to church and you need to write your parents we might even go to the park later today, but you need to get up."

She squirms and groans while rolling around in bed. She sits up and stretches her arms with a yawn. Then she flops back onto the bed and rolls away from me. I start to tickle her, she rolls even further away from me.

"Hey you stinker! Get back here!" She is thrown into a fit of giggles and keeps rolling around on the bed trying to get away from me. I crawl on the bed with her pick her up then run out of the room with her in my arms. We make it to the kitchen and I set her down in her chair, "Eat up, Lizard"

"Thanks Auntie!" she exclaims before shoving a bite of pancakes in her mouth. I chuckle at her behavior.

"Lizard, we are going to go to church today, it starts in an hour. We are going to walk there so we need to get you ready to go soon."

"Okay, can I take a shower?"

"Of course you can"

After she is done with her breakfast we go back to her room and I let her pick out an outfit for her.

"Can I dress like you?" she asks as she picks out a dress that is white but has lots of different peach and pink dots on it. It has a pink bow that would go around her waist. She holds it to herself and it goes down to her calf.

"You can wear that if you want, now go shower" I tell her. Once she goes into the shower I take her dress and put it on her bed, I grab white tights and shoes that have a 2 in. heel in them. I make sure that she has a towel in the bathroom, and I'm about to take out the straightener.

"Lizard, what do you want to do with your hair?" I yell above the roar of the shower.

"Umm… Can I just have it down and curly?" she yells back at me.

"I can do that" I guess she really does want to look like me.

I let her finish her shower, I go back to the living room and sit down in my lazyboy and grab the book I was reading. I read for 15 minutes before I hear Lizzy come out of her room with her outfit on and wet hair.

"Come on, let's dry off your hair" I say as I take her hand and lead her back into the bathroom. I place her in front of the mirror and start to brush her hair. I take the towel hanging on the hook and throw it over her head, making her giggle. I rub the towel around on head and shake her around. She continues her fit of giggles as I start the hairdryer and take the towel off her head and fill her with the heat of the dryer. I continue to brush through her hair as I blowdry it.

When I'm done I search around in the drawer and find a headband that matches her dress, it is white and has a pink bow on the side of it. I put it in her hair and fluff up her curls a bit.

"There look at my beautiful girl" I exclaim as I look at her through the mirror.

"Take a picture, take a picture" she pleads with me. So I take out my phone, pull her to me, and take a picture of us through the mirror, "We can send that one to Daddy too!"

"Yes we can! You can start on your letter when we get home."

Lizzy grabs a pink cardigan, since it is still chilly out this morning. Around 10:15 we start the 10 min. walk to Orchard Hill Church. We walk hand in hand, my brown purse over my shoulder, and Lizzy has a pouch on her wrist. When we get to the warm church we are greeted by a lady who smells of cinnamon.

We continue on from the lobby area and see a little cafe that sells coffee and hot chocolate. Across from it is the gym where the service is held. As we walk into the gym, I can see that there are many people here already, so we decide to sit in the back. There is a stage area with instruments like drums, a piano, and guitars, there are four blocks of seating with aisles in between. And we are sitting in the area in the back where it is raised, behind us is a sound booth area.

We sit for 10 minutes watching people file in and greet each other, Lizzy is pointing out some of the kids from school that she notices. All of a sudden she stands up and starts waving intently at someone. I look at her, then try and follow her line of vision to see who has gotten her so excited. I really hope that she's not waving to who I think she's waving at. But I am unfortunate as Four makes his way through the crowd, and up the stairs on Lizzy's side to talk to her.

"Hi Four!" she exclaims.

"Hi Lizzy, how are you?" Four asks. He is wearing black dress pants, a white shirt, with a dark blue tie. He looks really good, I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes on his dark blue ones.

"I'm good, would you like to sit with us?" My head snaps to her and my eyes widen, and I blush, she looks at me and laughs at my reaction.

"I would love to sit with you Lizzy, as long as it's okay with Tris here" he responds after looking at my reaction.

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves, "Yeah sure, that's fine."

He smiles at me, then looks to Lizzy again, "I need to go up there first," he points to the sound booth area behind us, "I have to check something."

"Okay! Hurry back!" Lizzy exclaims. He goes up the stairs and opens the door to go into the room.

"Lizzy, you don't just invite him here, 1, you didn't even ask me, and 2, he might have someone else to sit with" I say exasperated.

"I know, but I watched him come in and he was alone. And you wouldn't have asked him so I did it for you."

"I don't need you to do that for me, if I want to get to know him I'll do it by myself." I respond.

"Well what if I want to get to know him too? You still wouldn't want to sit with him, especially with the way you blushed when he looked at you!" she exclaims with a giggle.

The service starts and we sing a few songs, Four hasn't come down yet. Right before the sermon starts, he comes down and sits in the spot next to Lizzy. He throws his arm over the back of her seat, his hand skimming my shoulder. I try to focus on the sermon, I really do, but everytime he moves his hand at all, it sends shivers down my spine.

The sermon ends and we sing a few more songs again, I faintly hear Lizzy singing 'Amazing Grace' by John Newton. I smile at her sweet voice, she is so innocent. They say the final prayers and we get to leave. We walk out of the gym with Four trailing us, Lizzy truns around and I follow suit.

"It was nice to sit with you Four!"

"You too Lizzy, I'll see you soon okay? Bye"

"Okay bye Four, have a good day"

"You too," he turns to me and with a smirk and a nod of his head and says, "Tris."

"Four" I nod in acknowledgement. Four turns around and heads out the back doors. Lizzy and I walk toward the front entrance and head home. I've already had a crazy day and it is only beginning.

 **I am leaving my story T rated, my parents would not appreciate it if it were higher. This is the kind of story I want to write.**


	8. Chapter 8

When Lizzy and I get home from church, I take a deep breath. I start on lunch for us, chicken flavored Ramen Noodles. I have Lizzy set the table for me as I serve lunch making sure I cut up some apples for us. After we eat I set paper, a pencil, and crayons in from of her.

"What's all of this for?" she asks me.

"You can write your parents and we can give them pictures of your first week here" I answer her.

As she writes and draws on her paper, I go to the my laptop and print off the pictures that I downloaded from my camera. I smile at the pictures that are printed, starting with her first day of school with Christina. then yesterday in the leaves, and finally earlier today with our matching outfits.

I bring the pictures to the kitchen with me and set them down beside Lizzy. I look over her shoulder and read what she has wrote down so far:

 _Dear Daddy and Mommy,_

 _How are you doing? Are you helpin lots of peple? I am havin fun with Anty Tris. She is helpin me sta calm, I relly mis you both. I want you to com home, but I now that you need to be there. We like playin in the leves or at the park. We walk outsid to get to skool. I wish you were here with me. I love you. You are the best._

 _-Elizabeth_

I don't have the heart to fix her spelling, and I smile at the pictures that she drew. Including her and her friends at school, us doing yard work, even our encounter with Four in the gym at the back to school night.

"It looks great Lizard! I have pictures that you can put into the envelope" I say as I point to the pictures I put next to her.

She looks up at me with tear-stained cheeks and a sad smile, "Thanks Auntie." Only now do I realize that her paper has little wet spots on it from her tears.

"Oh honey," I exclaim as I pick her up into my arms. She wraps her arms around my neck and buries her face into my hair. I carry her over to my lazyboy chair next to the open window. "Is it hard to think about them when they are gone?"

She nods her head that is still buried in my neck. She starts to sob loudly in my arms, I hold her tighter telling her to let it out. I close my eyes and lean my head on hers and whisper calming things in her ears.

After about 10 minutes of her crying, she falls silently to sleep. I stay in my chair until I hear the doorbell ring around 2:30. I get up from the chair still holding Lizzy and shuffle over to the door. I open it to see a bright Christina whose smile fades when sees Lizzy's tearstained face.

"What's wrong?" she whispers to me. I open the door farther to let her in. We walk into the kitchen and sit at the table, Lizzy in my lap.

"She was writing her letter to her parents," I give a sad smile to the papers still on the table, "It must have overwhelmed her. She's done so great her, I was wondering when she was going to break."

"Poor girl, she has lasted this long, she is a tough one" Christina responds.

"I'll be right back," I stand up with Lizzy and take her to her room, putting her in PJ's, tucking her under the covers. I walk back out to the kitchen and sit back down in the chair I was occupying before. "So what brings you here? Wait, how did you know where I lived?"

"I asked the office for your address, because I didn't have your number yet," She says as she pushes her blue phone across the table. I laugh at her subtleness and enter my information into her phone. "You know, you live just down the road from Uriah."

"Umm, who?" I ask, trying to match the name to a face, but I give up, I have no idea.

"Uriah, he's the handyman, he has a small business with his brother Zeke called Pedrad Pros. If you have something that needs fixing, you call them. And I think that Zeke has a daughter in your grade, her name is Megan."

I remember Megan, she was very outgoing and happy. "So how do you know him?"

"I call him up every so often if I'm having troubles around the house. And he comes in and fixes things around the school sometimes. He and Zeke usually go out with us when we have our Teacher's Night Out."

"Teacher's Night Out?" I question.

"Well that's what I came to talk to about. Every other Sunday most of the younger teachers and their partners such as ourselves go out and hang out. It'll help us get to know you more."

"Oh, _partners_ , do you have one?" I ask her.

She blushes a little bit on her mocha skin, "Yeah, his name's is Will, he is a scientist up at the college." I nod accepting her answer, I know this is a college town that is the home of the University of Northern Iowa, UNI.

"Okay, what about the kids?" I ask justering to the hallway where Lizzy's room is.

"The first Sunday that we go out we go to a family friendly place, so that is this Sunday. Otherwise on the other Sunday, Mr. Johnston has responsible older children who we pay to watch the kids for the night."

I think about this for awhile, it sounds fun, I just want to know which teachers are going, "Okay, so this Sunday, today, is the family outing one. Am I correct?" She nods. "So who is all going?"

She thinks for a moment, "Well, Uriah and his girlfriend Marlene, Zeke and his wife Shauna, their daughter Megan, Zeke usually drags Four out to it," she pauses and waggles her eyebrows at me. I roll my eyes and make the hand gesture to say go on, "There is Mr. Johnston and his wife Carol, their children Cody, Drake, and Gretta. Mrs. Jacobs and her husband Josh, and last but not least Ms. Timothy."

"Where are they going tonight?" I ask after thinking over all the people that will be there.

"I think today we are at Pizza Ranch, we need to make the reservations, so are you in?"

"Yeah, sure, we're in" I say. She picks up her phone from the table and starts to type in it. She gets an immediate response then turns off her phone. I raise an eyebrow at her actions.

"What? I had to tell everyone you're coming." I shake my head and laugh at her.

We hear commotion from the other room and Lizzy comes out of her room with bed head.

"Hello Ms. Sunshine!" Christina exclaims enthusiastically. Lizzy looks surprised at her being here, she looks to me and I shrug.

"Hi" she says, still seeming down, I frown as she crawls into my lap and curls up. I look at Christina and she looks concerned for Lizzy.

"Hey, are you feeling up to going out with Christina and some of the other teachers and kids tonight Lizzy?" I ask her, not wanting to push her into doing it.

"Yeah, that sounds fun" she responds her voice muffled by my shirt. I rub my hand up and down her back as she snuggles in closer to me.

Christina and I continue a conversation full of small talk with Lizzy pitching in every so often. Once it gets closer to 6 we wrap up our conversation because the Night Out starts at 6:30.

"So this is a casual outing right?" I ask for confirmation.

"Yup, jeans and a shirt work. See you there" she says. She needed to get home to change and pick up Will.

"See ya later" I stand Lizzy up help her pick out jeans and a sweatshirt, I throw her hair into a high ponytail. I change into something similar, jeans and a sweater, but I leave my hair down, just combing through it.

We climb in the car at 6:10 and make the trip in 15 minutes. When we get there it is really crowded, and I don't see anyone I know. I make sure I have Lizzy's hand and make my way through the crowd. They might be here already so I want to check the booth area. When we get there we see a room reserved for the teachers.

We walk in, everyone looks at us, then greets us as I blush from the attention. I hear Christina above the noise calling me over, I see her sitting at a table with Four across from Christina, a guy next to her, and two similar looking people across from each other.

"There is a kids table over there," she says, pointing to a quieter corner that holds four kids at it already.

I nod my head and squat down to Lizzy's height, "I'm going to sit with the adults and you can go sit with the other kids over there," I nod over to the corner table, "Can you do that for me? When we get home we can make some cookies." I say trying to bribe her.

"Okay," she responds quietly and turns away from me towards the table. I grimace at her still sour mood and stand up. I walk back over to Christina's table hearing her tell the others how Lizzy was in a bad mood when she was over at my house.

I see that the only spot open is next to Four, so I pull the seat out and sit down. Everyone is in deep conversation already, except Four who is sitting there looking around the room, so I feel awkward.

He throws his arm across the back of my chair, his hand skimming my shoulder, making me shiver. From the corner of my eye I see Four smirk at me, this is going to be an interesting dinner.


	9. Chapter 9

We wait for the next 5 minutes chatting, until Ms. Timothy enters the room. She sits down next to Mrs. Jacobs at the other table after glaring at me. I wonder what I did. I look at my table and see everyone is trying to hold back laughter. I raise an eyebrow at their actions.

Four leans over and whispers into my ear, "She usually sits where you're sitting," I give him a shocked look, I'd feel bad if I took her spot, "We don't like her sitting with us." His breath is hot on my neck, so I try to hold back another shiver.

"Okay, so you don't have assigned seating?"

He leans back more fully in his chair and explains, "We have a kids table and the adults sit wherever they want" I nod my head in understanding.

They all stand up and file out of the room, leaving to get food. This is one of those places where it has all of the food set up, you just have to go get it, like an all you can eat buffet. I guess they were just waiting for everyone to show up first.

I walk over to Lizzy and take her out to help her get her food. She has a small smile on her face, so I know that she is better than before. We get in line by the chicken, potatoes, and biscuits, I grab a plate for her and she points at what she wants. A chicken leg, potatoes, and potato wedges. Then we get in line at the salad bar and she gets carrots and chocolate pudding.

I walk over to the soda machine and I get her a lemonade. I hand her all of her stuff and she slowly walks back into the room. I get back in line to get my food, I pick out taco pizza, potato wedges, and a salad. Then I also get a lemonade, I'm not a fan of pop or caffeine.

When I get back to the room, I see that everyone is already seated and eating. I sit down in my spot next to Four and quietly eat my food. Four is the only one not in a conversation, so I ask him to introduce me to everyone.

"I can't believe Christina didn't already introduce you. That's Will," he says nodding to a blonde haired green eyed man across from me, "That's Uriah and Marlene," the man on the other side of Christina with brown hair and eyes and the girl next to him who has long silky brown hair and hazel eyes, "And that's Zeke and Shauna." He explains, I look at Zeke and notice the similarities between him and Uriah, same hair and eyes, but Uriah is more lean than Zeke. Shauna has shoulder length hair and green eyes. Zeke is seated next to him and Shauna is across from Marlene.

I nod my head as a thank you and watch everybody in their conversations. Christina's eyes light up when she is talking to Will, touching his shoulder when he makes her laugh. I think that they make a cute couple.

Uriah looks very outgoing in his actions, being the loudest as he talks and uses grand hand gestures. Marlene looks more laid back just nodding along with him as he explains his story.

Zeke and Shauna seem very happy with one another, Shauna's head on Zeke's shoulder, his arm around her. They are very much in love by the looks of it, I'm happy for them.

I look at Four last only to find him looking at me. He sees me looking at him and he turns away, I can see his ears turn a tint of red, I smile at the reaction that I gave him. But then it fades when he throws his arm over my chair again, I narrow my eyes at him. He probably did that so that he seemed like he wasn't embarrassed. He causally rubs his hand up and down on my shoulder sending tingles down my spine.

I glare at him then I decide to tease him the way that he has been teasing me. I start by pulling my chair forward, effectively pulling it closer to him, but that doesn't drop his arm from around me. I continue to eat my food, but every so often I brush my arm across his side, "accidentally". Every time I do he gives me a small smile then keeps eating. I feel like I'm not doing enough to harass him, so I choose to move it up a step.

Since our table is full I use to my advantage the small space in between us. I stretch my legs out and purposely brush my leg against his thigh. He looks at me with wide eyes, I give him a fake sorry look. I continue my sweet torture throughout the first helping of our meal. Eventually, I get up to get a second helping of food, when I'm about to leave the room Four quickly gets up and follows me out the door, making me smile.

I get in line for some chicken, he gets in line right next to me, putting his whole side against me. My breath hitches and I straighten up not expecting him to be so close to me.

He leans down close to my ear and whispers, "I know what you are doing. You need to stop."

My eyes widen and I feel a blush rise on my neck, I bite my bottom lip and look down and mumble under my breath, "It's nothing you haven't done before."

"What was that?" he asks coming closer to me, causing me to take a step back.

"Nothing," I say then abruptly turn away with my new plate of food. I make it back into the room and sit back down in my spot. Four comes in shortly after me.

"So Tris," Christina gets my attention, "After this we usually go to Zeke and Shauna's place for a little bit. Lizzy can sleep in Megan's room with her."

"Who all is going? All of us?" I ask pointing around the room.

"No, just us at this table" she replies I nod, I'm not really comfortable around Ms. Timothy, she gives me the chills.

"I'll think about it, it depends on what time we get out of here" She nods her head in understanding.

As we continue our conversations, Lizzy comes over to me trying to get my attention, "Can I go get dessert?" Of course, she's here for dessert not conversation.

"Sure, give me a second" I want to finish my conversation with Christina about a new show that came out recently. I turn back to Christina when I hear Four speak up.

"I can take you," he stands up and offers his hand to her. She giggles, takes his hand, and they walk out of the room.

The conversation at our table stops, I look around and see that they are all staring at the door that Lizzy and Four just left from.

"What?" I question them.

"Four is never like that" Shauna answers for the group.

"Like what?" Not knowing what the problem is.

"He is being friendly. It's weird, when I first met him he barely talked to me, let alone offer to do something for Megan" Shauna says.

"It took me years to get him as happy as he is tonight and he's joining our conversations" Zeke offers. I really don't know what to say to that, so I don't say anything.

Four comes back into the room with a smiling Lizzy who is holding her ice cream that has a perfect swirl in one hand and his hand in the other. She is laughing at something he said, I look to him and see him smile at her. He lets go of her hand and she bounds over to her table, he comes back with a stern straight-face. I am taken back by how quickly his mood changed.

The others are giving me looks that I interpret as 'I told you so' I just shrug in response. They go back to their normal conversations and I go into deep thought about how Four's mood changes and how he makes me feel. I know that I like him, how much, I don't know. Maybe just a small kid crush for now, I just want to get to know him better.

I continue to think about this as people finish up their meals, Four shakes me out of my deep thoughts, "Hey, you okay?"

I blush at the thought of him knowing that I was thinking about him, I clear my throat and respond, "Yeah, thanks"

It is 8:45, we've been here for almost two and a half hours. We gather our belongs, I make sure Lizzy has everything and we leave the restaurant after they shake hands with each other and wish them a good night. I stand there awkwardly as people come up and shake my hand. Once we are done I hear Christina call me over to her where she still is by the entrance.

I walk over to her, "So are you going with us?" She asks referring to the little get together after the meal.

"I think that I'll pass this time, but we'll be there next time." I say, gesturing to a yawning Lizzy as I speak.

"Okay, I get it. Have a good night Tris," she says as she comes in for the hug, She pulls back then brings in Lizzy for the hug. Lizzy seems half asleep already, exhausted from today's events. I try to pick up Lizzy and hold my purse in the other hand, I slowly walk to my car with her in my arms.

Four comes out of the restaurant and chuckles at my slow progress with her, he walks over and takes Lizzy from my arms. Her head falls onto his shoulder and her arms are dangling around his neck. I mumble out a thanks as we keep walking towards my car.

"It's nice to have a daughter as sweet as her," he says while we are walking.

"Yeah it is nice," I wonder if he thinks she's my daughter, wasn't he there at the meeting where I was introduced? "But, she's not my daughter, you did know that, right?"

He seems surprised by my response, "Really? I thought for sure she was yours, you look alike except for her eyes." He mumbles out the last part.

"She is my niece, my brother's daughter. Weren't you there at the meeting on back to school night?"

"Yeah, I wasn't really paying attention." He tells me, then he mutters under his breath.

"What?" I ask not hearing what he said.

"Nothing," He replies, I don't push it. We reach my car towards the middle of the parking lot. He helps me put her in her booster seat then gives me shivers by hugging me goodbye, afterwards walking away towards his vehicle.

I leave and make my way home and get Lizzy situated in bed then walk into the kitchen where her letter still sits there finished.

I grab an envelope from the paper drawer and tuck in the letter and pictures for Caleb and Susan. I address it to the home that they are staying in Haiti and set it by my purse, reminding me to take it with me tomorrow so that I can mail it.

I make my way to my room and get ready for bed, then fall asleep as soon as my head touches the pillow. I dream of a blue eyed boy that still has me tingling from the touch of his hug.


	10. Chapter 10

The next week blew by quickly, though school went by slowly because we were just getting into things. Lizzy had a better attitude the next day after she got some sleep, and is now her happy self again. Four still had his signature smirk around me, it's kind of annoying. We have shared very few conversations since Sunday night. Christina is starting to hang around at my house, she's either with me, or she's at Will's house.

Now it is Saturday morning, Christina is spending the day with Will. I didn't go on my run this morning, but I was thinking of going on a walk through the trails by my house later today with Lizzy. Speaking of which, it's 9:00 and she still isn't up yet. I decide that I should go wake her up now so that we can get an early start on our day.

I walk into her room and see her still curled up in a ball sound asleep. I shake her awake telling her to get up. She slowly sits up and yawns as she stretches out her limbs.

"G'morning Auntie," she mumbles in her half-asleep voice.

"Good morning Lizard!" I cheer, "We have a busy day, so up, up, up!"

"Ugh," she expresses her mood and flops back onto her bed.

"Don't make me bring out the Tickle Monster!" I say wiggling my fingers around in a tickling motion.

"Okay, okay! I'm up," she exclaims as she sits right up. I laugh at her reaction.

She gets out of bed and goes to the bathroom, I walk out into the kitchen and make her breakfast, a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. She comes out in her pajamas thanks me and starts digging in. I walk into her room and pick out her outfit, a green shirt, black yoga pants, short black socks, and a black jacket on top. It's like my outfit, tight purple shirt with grey yoga pants, I also have a black North Face jacket tied around my waist and my hair in a ponytail.

She comes into the room when I'm done and changes her clothes after I leave, she comes out 5 minutes later with a hairbrush and a green ponytail.

"Can you french braid my hair please?" she asks. I nod and she sits down on the floor in front of me while I'm sitting in my lazy boy. I brush through her hair getting all of the traces of bed head out. Then carefully I weave and twist my fingers through her hair braiding it. When I'm done, I tell her to get her shoes on.

I grab my black cinch sac with 'Prior' embedded into it in red. I put in my phone, money, water bottles, apples, and sunscreen.

"What are we doing Auntie?" Lizzy asks as she sees me gathering all of these supplies.

"We are going to go walking on the trails and there is a park along the way that we can stop at, if you want," I explain.

"Yay! I want to go to the park!"

"Okay, then we will go out to eat at a place called Mulligans afterwards for lunch."

"Okay" she says.

After putting on our shoes we walk out to the garage so that I can grab a frisbee that we can play with at the park and put it in my bag also. I made sure to lock the front door and stuff the keys into my bag. We turn right at the sidewalk towards the trails, in Cedar Falls you see many people walking or biking around. So it's not surprising to see many people out right now in the nice weather at 69 degrees, before it gets too cold.

We make it to the trail, which is a long cement path that goes through a forest looking area, you can see lots of different animals roaming around like squirrels, turkeys, and chipmunks. We stay on the right side of the trail because we are walking, so others who are going faster can pass us easier. Lizzy stays closer to the inside of the trail because there is a small slope on the outside of the path and I don't want her to fall down it.

We talk about school and her new friends that she is making, I try to avoid the subject of her parents, knowing that it is still a sensitive subject for her. After walking down the path for a while, Lizzy gets tired so we sit down on a bench that is close to the end of the path, where it splits off towards the park. I take out a water bottle and hand it to her.

"How are you holding up?" I ask her, I can see that she is a little hot because her face is red.

"I'm good, just a little tired," she says, wiping some sweat that has formed on her forehead off.

"You should take off your jacket and wrap it around your waist, if you're too hot." She does as I suggests and wraps it around her waist, tying it off. We are about to continue on again after a ten minute break, but she steps out onto the trail a little bit and waves her and smiling really big.

I turn to look where she is, and see Four coming the way that we came. He is wearing a skin tight dark grey shirt and his typical black basketball shorts. He has an arm band with his phone strapped into it and he's probably listening to music because of the ear buds he has in. Also he is sweating a lot because he was running until Lizzy waved at him. He slows down and stops at the bench by us taking deep breaths to calm his heart rate down. He pulls out his headphones and putting his hands on his hips to help him breath better.

"Hi Four!" Lizzy exclaims.

"Hi Lizzy, Tris," he replies through deep breaths. I am caught staring at him because the shimmer of the sweat on his face makes him look great, I look at the ground to calm my blushing cheeks.

"Hi Four" I softly say, embarrassed by my gawking.

He smiles at me and asks, "What are you guys doing out here?"

Lizzy beats me to the answer, "We are walking to the park, then going out for lunch, what are you doing?"

"Well I was just out for a run, I've been out for," he looks at his phone that is still on his shoulder, "about an hour."

"You should come with us!" Lizzy exclaims, "Want to join us?" I give her a stern look, because I know that I've talked about about this to her before, she shouldn't just ask him to join, even if I kind of do want him to join us with that amazing body of his.

Four looks to me with a raised eyebrow and a small smile playing on his lips. I shrug returning his smile.

He looks back to Lizzy, "Sure, I'll come with you, I need a break anyways."

So after he catches his breath, we continue our walk, Lizzy a little bit in front of Four and I, so that we don't take up the whole sidewalk. We walk silently beside each other, though it isn't awkward, it is a comfortable silence. I can hear Lizzy humming a song from church that I remember from last Sunday, I smile at the precious girl in front of me.

We make it to the park in about another 20 minutes, with Lizzy occasionally asking Four a question like 'What's your favorite color?' or 'Do you have a dog?' it was quite amusing actually.

I set my bag down on one of the three picnic tables provided, taking out water and a frisbee. I let Lizzy go down the slides and do the monkey bars. I walk over to an open area and beckon Four with the frisbee, he chuckles and walks about 20 feet away from me. I throw the frisbee at him and he catches it, throwing it back at me.

"So, when did you learn you wanted to be a gym teacher?" I ask him throwing the frisbee back to him.

"Well, I always knew that I wanted to do something active, I was never a desk job type of guy," I nod, understanding the feeling, "I guess it just happened, something I could enjoy without it being stressful. I didn't want to be a high school or junior high teacher, that just involved too much drama. And I'm not one for drama. How about you?"

I laugh at his reasoning. "Well, I always loved kids, even though I never babysat or had younger siblings, I like to teach things and help people learn new things, I don't know it was just something that interested me." He nods his head accepting my answer. "Where did the name Four come from?"

He laughs at the thought of his nickname's origin, "It was actually given to me by Zeke, he has been my friend since high school and I had the fastest mile time of 4 minutes flat. Every time I tried to beat it I would never get better than 4:00. So that's what he called me, and it stuck with me."

"Wow, that's impressive," he shrugs waving it off. "Then what's your real name?" I ask, hoping that I'm not prying too much.

He looks like he is having an internal battle, so I quickly inform him, "You don't need to answer that, I just hope one day you would be willing to share it with me."

He gives me a thankful smile and says, "One day." I really hope that this 'one day' is sooner rather than later.

Lizzy comes over to us, wanting to be pushed in the swing before we leave. I push her for 10 minutes then we get ready to leave again. I check my phone and see that it is 11:57, I'm getting hungry so I'm glad we are leaving now.

"We are going to Mulligans if you would like to join us for lunch, Four" I say.

"I should be heading home," he replies with a little bit of uncertainty in his voice.

"Please?!" Lizzy asks with her puppy dog face.

"Oh, all right I'll go with you" he responds with a chucked at her begging. Lizzy cheers and claps in excitement.

After making sure we have everything, we head out towards Mulligans, a brick open grill and pub. We make the small trip in 5 minutes, and are seated right away. At our booth table Lizzy is against the wall next to me and Four is across from us. We order hamburgers and french fries as our meal and make small chat as we wait.

When our meals come we eat silently and savor our bites. The bill comes and before I can grab it Four has it in his hand.

"Hey! Give me that," I exclaim with furrowed eyebrows, reaching for the bill.

"Nope, I've got it," he says as he pulls it back and takes money and his debit card out from under his phone in his arm band.

"No, we asked you to lunch, I'll pay" I argue.

The waitress comes over and takes the check from him, "It's too late now," he says with a smug smile for getting what he wants.

I narrow my eyes at him and take a deep breath, annoyed that he did that, "Thanks Four" I say even though I didn't want him to do that.

"You're welcome" I roll my eyes still annoyed at him.

We walk back down the trail to our houses, we come to the point where he has to turn to go down his street to his house, which is only 2 blocks away from my house.

"Bye Four thanks for coming with us!" Lizzy exclaims.

"No problem Lizzy" he replies. She walks away and becomes entranced in the flowers that are by the creek about 10 feet away.

"Thanks for going with us, keeping us company, and for lunch Four" I say as I reach out and give him a hug, even though we are both kind of sweaty.

"Anytime Tris, and maybe… uh," he stutters on his words, I raise my eyebrows not knowing what he is getting at, "Maybe we can do it again sometime"

I raise my eyebrows further not expecting that to be what he was stuttering on, "Yeah, okay, we can do it again."

He smiles at me, "Cool"

I smile back at him, "Okay, bye." I turn to walk away, when I hear him again.

"Wait, can I have your number?" his ears tint red after he says this. I am internally excited that I can make him feel that way too.

"Um, yeah sure" I take his phone and type in my information, then give it back to him.

"Thanks" he mutters as he looks at his phone.

"Bye Four," I say once again. I gather Lizzy from the creek where she was looking at some of the wild flowers.

As we are walking home I get a text from an unknown number saying _Hi;)._

I instantly know that it was Four and get a goofy look that I'm pretty sure won't leave my face today.


	11. Chapter 11

Monday morning comes and goes quickly, Lizzy and I are already on our way to school on this cold, rainy day. Lizzy is holding my hand trying to stay under the black umbrella that I am holding. I still went on my run this morning when it was only sprinkling and not fully down pouring like it is now.

I was pleasantly surprised this morning by a text from Four, even though it wasn't more than a 'good morning', it still made me smile. I continued the conversation until I needed to wake up Lizzy for school.

When we get to school, I take her to Christina's room. Then I walk to my room to get ready for today. I think that I'm actually going to start teaching them things, getting out of the routine of returning to school. I sit at my desk and think of a few spelling words that I could give them, and we'd have a test on Thursday, because we don't have school on Friday. I start writing down my ideas in my daily planner, I'm so deep in my thoughts that I don't realize there is someone at my door.

"Hi," I am startled from my work, quickly looking up. I spot Four leaning against the door, he wears a smirk because he just scared me.

I clear my throat, "Hi Four, how are you?"

"I'm good," he responds then comes further into the room.

"That's good," I stand up and walk around my desk, sitting on the edge instead, "So, what are you doing here?" I ask wondering why he came to my room and not to the gym.

"Well, I wanted to see you, am I not allowed to see you?" He smiles and continues to walk closer to me, standing about five feet in front of me.

"What's the real reason?" I ask knowing that he can't be here just to see me.

"Really, I just wanted to see you!" He exclaims, stuffing his hands into his pockets, then adds, "And I wanted to know if you are doing anything this Friday."

I smile thinking of yesterday when he wanted to go out with me again, "No, why do you ask?"

His cheeks turn pink as he thinks of his answer, "Um, would you like to go out with me Friday night?"

Ugh, he is so cute when he is embarrassed! "Like a date?" I ask, making sure.

"Yeah, like a date."

I smile, "Sure, I'd love that." I walk up to him then wrap my arms around his waist laying my head on his chest. He rests his chin on my head and his arms encircling my shoulders. He smells like Axe, I really like it. After our hug I look at the clock on the wall above my door and see that it is 8:09, and kids should be showing up soon.

"Okay, I've got to go, see you later," Four says after letting me go.

"Okay, bye," I respond not really wanting him to go. I watch him leave the room, then get back to making spelling words for the kids. After I have them done some of the kids start to trickle into the room. Megan comes in and takes her seat, a few minutes later Zeke shows up too.

"Hi TP!" Zeke exclaims engulfing me in a hug.

"TP?" I ask.

"Yeah, Tris Prior, TP," he expresses, all proud of his nickname for me. I laugh and shake my head, "Hey, any reason that Four would be all happy and chipper this Monday morning?"

"Not that I know of," I say turning around to busy myself with something hoping to contain my blush.

"Really?" He asks leaning over my desk and putting his face level with mine so that he can see me.

I turn my head away and straighten up, "Really," I get my emotions under control then look at him with a stern glare.

"Damn, you and Four are so stubborn, why do I even bother? Well I've got to get to work, see ya later TP," he says as he is leaving.

I shake my head as the warning bell goes off indicating that there is only 5 minutes left until school starts. I wonder what Four was acting like if he was all 'happy and chipper', I might go find out later.

I start the kids on math and continue through my schedule for today, while they are working on a coloring project I check my phone. I see that I have a text, I open it and see that it is from Four.

 _Can't wait for the date!_

I look around making sure that all of the kids are distracted by the coloring before I turn back to my phone and respond to him.

 _Me either, but you shouldn't be texting me during work hours._

 _I can't help it, you're so close!_

I'm glad that he texts in complete sentences, it bothers me when people don't do that.

 _I've gotta go, bye._

 _Bye beautiful._

I'm blushing when I read the last text he gave me, I put away my phone and walked around the room making sure that no one needs my help. The rest of the morning flies by quickly, and lunch is already here. I grab the lunch I packed at home and head to the teacher's lounge.

When I get to the lounge, I see that Four and Christina are sitting at a table together, so I go and sit down with them at their circle table. Four gives me a smile, in which I return one. But, Christina is giving me weird looks so I furrow my eyebrows at her asking her what's wrong. She nods her head towards Four, I look over and see Four looking at me with a slight smile on his face. I blush and look back to Christina shrugging my shoulders.

She leaves the subject alone and we make small talk through the meal. After the lunch bell rings I go back to my classroom to meet my kids, it is still raining outside so they are staying in for recess today. I bring out the board games like Candy-land, Sorry, and Chutes and Ladders. I also bring out card games like Uno, and I Spy.

After recess we go to music because it is Day 2. After we are done I let them pack up for the day, they only have 10 minutes left anyways. The final bell rings and the children file out the door, eager to get home. Lizzy comes in while I'm cleaning up and gathering my things.

"Auntie, it's still raining out so make sure you have the umbrella," she says.

"Okay, Lizzy, I've got the umbrella, see?" I pick up the umbrella and show her. I take her hand and walk out the door after shutting off the lights. We walk down to the kindergarten end of the building so that we can stay inside as long as possible. We get outside, I hold the umbrella over us as we hurry through the pouring rain.

We make it halfway down the first block when I hear a car pull up beside us.

"Do you guys need a ride?" I look over to see Four in a silver Chevrolet Silverado.

"Sure," I yell over the rushing rain. We rush around the truck and hop in quickly, I'm in the passenger seat and Lizzy is in the back behind me, "Thanks Four"

"No problem," he says looking over at me with a smile. He pulls into my driveway 2 minutes later, "There you are."

I look back to Lizzy, who is smiling at me, then look back to Four, "Do you want to come in for a little bit? I think Lizzy and I were just going to watch a movie, you can join us if you want."

He smiles at me, "Okay," then he looks through the rear view mirror, "Is that okay with you Lizzy?"

"It's definitely fine with me," Lizzy giggles, making me smile even more.

We get out of the car and swiftly rush to the door, I open it, let them in then quickly shut it behind them. We take our shoes off and walk into the living room.

"Lizzy, why don't you pick out a movie," she nods her head and makes her way over to the cabinet where the DVD's are. I walk into the kitchen with Four behind me, "Do you want anything to drink, I have water, milk, hot chocolate, pop?"

"I'll take some hot chocolate," he answers. I smile and take out the mugs, milk and chocolate powder for the hot chocolate. I know that Lizzy wants some too, and I also want some. I heat up the milk in the microwave then add the chocolate powder, stirring it to get the chunks out.

I hand one to him and take the other two into the living room with me, so I can give Lizzy hers. I see that she picked out the movie, Avengers, an action movie. I sit on the couch, Four next to me and Lizzy on the other side of Four.

As the movie plays on, I notice that Lizzy has tucked herself into Four's side, quietly sleeping. I also lean against Four's shoulder causing him to put his arm around me, making me snuggle in further.

After the movie, I get up and fold the blanket that I was using. I turn around and see that Four has Lizzy in his arms I gesture to him to follow me to Lizzy's room so that he can put her in bed. I tuck her in under her covers then walk back out into the living room, I see that Four is getting his shoes and coat on.

"Thanks for staying with us Four," I say.

He smiles, "Anytime Tris, thanks for having me over," he says as he wraps me in his arms. He lets go and is about to turn and leave, I grab his arm turning him back around and give him a peck on the cheek.

"I'm looking forward to Friday," I say, he has a goofy look after that, he says some form of bye and is out the door soon after. I watch him pull out of my driveway wishing he would've stayed.

The rest of the night goes on like normal, I wake Lizzy up from her nap so that she'll get sleep tonight, make supper, then get ready for bed after watching a little TV. I would love more nights like tonight.

 **Happy Halloween! For those of you that have read my reviews and saw the one saying that this is garbage, don't worry. It was one of my older brothers, they like to mess with me, so when I told them about this they made fun of me and wrote that comment. It doesn't bother me. And no, I don't live in Minnesota, but I do live in the Mid-West of the United States. I know this chapter isn't that great, I was really tired tonight.**


	12. Chapter 12

This morning I woke up with a new energy. I felt wide awake, I think that a certain someone is the cause of that. It could also be from the text that I got this morning from Four saying, _Good morning :)._ We had a small pleasant conversation after that, I had to stop it otherwise I would have forgotten to wake up Lizzy.

Last night, right before bed I got a text from Christina, being her snoopy self she insisted that I tell her everything that is going on between Four and I. So she is coming over today after school so that we can 'talk'.

It is always nice to have Christina around, but sometimes she can be overwhelming, I would still consider her a great friend. She is also a great teacher, even though she has only been working here for a year. She has lived in Iowa for 5 years, going to college at UNI. Before, she lived in a small town in Illinois. She has known Uriah and Zeke for 5 years because Marlene was Christina's dorm mate, and that made the connection to Uriah and Zeke.

Now it is 3:35, 10 minutes before school is out, my students are sitting in their seats reading their books that we got from the library today. I had a normal day, teaching, lunch, recess, work time. Four was still at the same table as yesterday with Christina. She kept giving me accusing looks, I didn't know what to do, so I talked to Four instead.

The final bell rings bringing me out of my thoughts, I look around and see that the kids have left the room. I sigh and straighten out the chairs and desks from today. About five minutes later, I hear the squeal of Lizzy from down the hallway and smile to myself.

"Auntie!" she squeals, running into the room and hides behind my legs. Christina follows soon after jogging into the room.

"Where is that stinker?" she asks like she can't see Lizzy behind my legs, "I'm gonna find you!"

Lizzy giggles from behind me. Christina rushes over to her picking her up and swinging her around, sending her into a fit of laughter. Seeing them like this makes me laugh along with them. She finally stops spinning her, setting her on her hip instead.

"We should get going," Christina says. Trying to smooth down her hair with one hand from all of her running, holding Lizzy with the other.

"Is Ms. K, going home with us Auntie?" Lizzy asks, laying her head on Christina's shoulder.

"Yes, she's going to drive us home and talk, maybe staying for supper" I look to Christina for the answer.

"Oh, definitely, we have a lot to talk about"

We walk out to her car since Lizzy and I walked again. We make it to my house in a minute. Lizzy stays in the living room picking out a movie for her to watch, while Christina and I move to the kitchen table to talk.

"Okay, what's going on between you and Number Boy?" she asks getting right to the point. I don't answer her, instead looking out the window over the sink. "Fine, the longer you don't talk the longer I stay here, I know something is going on, especially on Sunday. You guys were, I don't know… touchy? Not really touchy, but it was clear something was going on. And he was only talking to you"

"Yes, that is true. I may have run into him Saturday, then we spent the day with him"

"WHAT? And you didn't tell me?" she expresses, "What did you do together?"

"Lizzy and I were walking on the trails, and he was running, Lizzy saw him and invited him along, so yeah." I bite my lip to keep from smiling at the memory.

"You're not telling me everything…" she draws out.

"He might have also payed for our lunch," I say quickly, hoping that she didn't hear what I said.

"Are you serious!" She practically yelled, "He took you out?" Christina starts to mumble to herself, I catch a few words like, _I knew...different...so stubborn…_

I stay silent in my seat letting her collect her thoughts. I know that it's going to be a late night, so I sit back more fully in my chair and check the clock, 5:02. We've been talking for a little over an hour. Lizzy's movie is going to be done soon, and we need supper. Maybe we can get take out-

My thoughts are cut off by Christina talking again, "I knew something was up when he got all smiley. And on back to school night he was talking to Lizzy, he didn't do that with any of the other teachers. It's something about you. You seriously need to just hook up already." She lets out an exasperated sigh and leans back into her chair.

I blush because of her last sentence. I know Christina is going to shit a brick when she finds out that we kind of already hooked up. At my now red face she narrows her eyes at me knowing that there is even more that I'm not telling her.

"Spill it," she commands.

I throw my hands up in surrender knowing that there is no way I'm getting out of this one, stupid blush. "Okay, um, yesterday, Four came and talked to me after I dropped Lizzy off in your room."

Christina is hanging on to every word that I say. "Go on"

I look down at the table, "He may or may not have asked me on a date" I mumble, hoping that she didn't hear me. I look up knowing that I wasn't quiet enough, her eyes are wide and her mouth is hung open.

She squeals loudly and does a little happy dance in her chair. "Yes, yes, yes" she practically shouts fist pumping the air. I laugh at her reaction. "I am so getting you ready for this date, wait when and where is it at?"

I shrug my shoulders, "Four didn't say anything to me about it other than that it was on Friday."

"Ugh, girl, I need details," Christina groans.

"Sorry, that's all I have for ya. I'm going to order some food, what do you want?"

"How about Jimmy John's?" I nod my head, "I'll take the number 4 with no mayo"

"Okay," I grab out my phone and walk into the living room where Lizzy is now watching cartoons on Netflix. I ask her what she wants and call Jimmy John's to place our order. I go back to the kitchen with Christina and sit back down.

"Okay so this Saturday the gang, not kids, are going out to a club. Four usually doesn't come because we go in couples, so maybe you want to go and bring Four along with you?"

"Hold up Christina, we haven't even been on our first date yet, I don't know how things will go."

"Just ask him, please?" she begs me.

I take a deep breath, "We'll see how Friday goes, and from there we will decide what to do."

"Tell me what you know about him," I say after a little bit of thought.

"Well, Four started to work at Southdale about 2 years ago, I only know that because Uriah told me. He knows because Zeke is probably the closest one to him, that I know of. Zeke has known him since 9th grade, and they were college buddies here at UNI. Four moved here for 9th grade, and he won't talk about anything that has happened before he came here. I think that they lived with Hana in college, Zeke's mom through college because she lives on the other side of Cedar Falls."

Christina stops to think, "Oh, and I remember Zeke saying something about him having a bad past childhood or something like that, I know that he only got that out of him because he got drunk that night. The last two years it has happened on December 4, so something must have happened to him in the past. It kind of freaked us out the first time, we have never seen him like that before. But what I know for sure is that he is freaking intimidating, So I wouldn't recommend getting on his bad side, but I know that you won't cause you're already on his great side."

I smile at her last statement, but I'm curious about what was so bad in the past that he would want to drown it out.

The door bells rings indicating that Jimmy John's is here, I grab my wallet and head to the door. I pay for the food and have Lizzy come to the table with us to eat, after pausing her show. We eat in silence, each in our own thoughts, we mindlessly fold up our wrappers and stick them back into the take out bag. Lizzy goes back to her show, Christina sits in her chair thinking, and I go to my room and change into my pajamas, already ready to retire for the night soon, even though it is only 6:27.

I walk back into the kitchen ready to keep talking then think of Lizzy. I walk over to the living room and see her show just finished. I turn the TV off and put out some coloring books and crayons for her to color until her bedtime. After that I walk back into the kitchen.

"I'm not sure what else to tell you about him, but just be ready on Friday. Text me the details so that I can help you get ready," she stands up and gives me a hug. Then she walks over to Lizzy in the living room and gives her a hug also. She says some form of good-bye, and is out the door.

I make myself some hot chocolate, and sit down in my lazy boy next to Lizzy. I nurse my hot chocolate while I think of Four. He is sweet to me and he seems to really care. But would he really want the burden of having to deal with my life? With me having to go see my mother often, and me taking care of Lizzy. I have a lot on my plate, but I still wonder what Christina meant by him having a bad childhood. Maybe he might tell me one day, if we get close enough, hopefully Friday goes well, I call it the test run of a relationship.

I am distracted from my thoughts by seeing Lizzy yawn, "You tired Lizard?"

She nods her head and looks at me through hooded eyelids. I set my hot chocolate down on the coffee table in front of me. I pick her up and take her to her room, helping her get ready for bed. I tuck her under the covers, and she is out like a light.

I should get some sleep also, so I walk back down the hallway into the kitchen to put away my hot chocolate mug. I throw away the Jimmy John's bag, and clean up her crayons until next time.

I make sure everything is clean, then head off to bed, making sure to set my alarm for the morning. I fall asleep soon after my head hits the pillow.


	13. Chapter 13

On Thursday Four texted me the details about our date, it's going to be semi formal. We are going out to eat somewhere, and he told me to take something warm also. So I think that he has plans for before or after our dinner. He is picking me up from my house at 5:30. After I asked about where Lizzy is going he said that he set up a play date with Megan, so she's going to spend the night at Zeke and Shauna's house.

After school today Shauna came in the classroom and took both Megan and Lizzy home with her. Christina is here now buzzing around my bedroom throwing clothes on my bed and here and there. I'm sitting on the edge of my smaller dresser amused at her antics, I'm not ready at all, I have my glasses and school clothes on still. I look at the clock on my bedside table and see that it is only 4:27, we have an hour to get me ready for my date.

She starts to slow down with her throwing, so I start to look through what she has matched out on my bed. There are multiple dresses and different outfits laid out. I don't really want a dress, because I know that if we stay out late and are outside it will get really cold. So I give her back all of the dresses.

"Tris," she whines when I put all the dresses back into her arms.

"It's going to be cold, I'm not going to freeze to death on my date," I explain.

"Fine," she sighs as she puts them back into my closet.

I continue to pick through her outfits until I find one that I love. It is black leggings, a peach sweater with a white scarf. I hold it up to my body and Christina squeals and claps her hands at the sight at me.

"That one is perfect! You can wear some heels with it," she exclaims as she tries to stuff black 3 inch heels into my hands.

"No way Chris," I say as I shove them back into her hands, "He said to be semi formal, which means that we might be outside for awhile"

"Did you call me Chris?" She asks with her hands on her hips, heels still in her hand.

"Yes I did, why?" I ask.

"That's the first time that's all, just seeing if I heard you correctly, Trissy."

"No, don't call me that," I protest.

"What? It's like the same as Chris," she says.

"No, just no!" I say exasperated. I take the clothes in my hand and walk into my bathroom to change. When I come back out Chris is sitting there holding up knee high brown boots and grey boot socks instead. I nod my head in acceptance of her choice, grabbing them and putting them on.

"Come on," she grabs my hand and pulls me back into the bathroom. She has me sit on the counter as she works on my makeup after I put in my contacts.

"I don't want a lot, just do a natural look" I tell her. I really don't like makeup that much, for school all I put on is eyeliner and occasionally I put on mascara. So I don't have a lot of makeup to start off with. I can feel her putting things on my eyes and lips after she dabbed my whole face.

Once she is done with my makeup, she has me straddle the toilet seat so she can do my hair without me looking in the mirror. I can feel her brushing then pulling on my hair. It takes her about 10 minutes to finish her masterpiece.

When she is done she lets me get off the toilet and look in the mirror. I look amazing, she has eyeliner and mascara on with a light color of pink lipstick for my makeup. She must have put on powder to make sure my face isn't shiny. For my hair she braided both sides like a crown, and pulled my hair into a bun, with the braids circling the bun. I turn around and surprise her with a bear hug.

"Thanks Chris! It's amazing!" I exclaim.

"You're welcome Tris, just make sure to let me doll you up more often, it's fun!" I laugh at her response.

We spend the next 20 minutes putting all the clothes back into the closet. Chris pulls out one of my brown over the shoulder purses, she makes sure that I have gum and extra lipstick for sure. We maneuver ourselves into the living room and talk about our previous relationships, and how bad our first dates usually became.

At exactly 5:30 the doorbell rings, Chris pushes me towards the door and says, "Go get em Tiger!" I laugh at her as she hides herself out of the view from the front door. I open the door to reveal a smiling Four standing there with a bouquet of roses. My eyes widen at his appearance, black dress pants, a dark blue button down shirt, with his hair messily on his head. It's very sexy.

I notice his eyes skimming my body, when he reaches my eyes again his ears turn a little pink on the ends. He clears his throat and hands me the roses.

"You look good Tris," he exclaims. I blush and look down, he uses two fingers under my chin to bring my eyes back to his, "I mean it, you look beautiful."

I smile shyly at him and reply, "Thanks" I look at the flowers in my hands, "And these are wonderful, thank you, I'll be right back." I grab his arm and pull him inside, shutting the door halfway behind him. I walk to the kitchen, leaving him in the living room.

Chris sees me and covers her mouth to keep her mouth shut from squealing, I roll my eyes. I put the flowers in a vase full of water as I have a silent conversation with Chris.

"He's so sweet," she mouths to me. I nod my head in reply. I lean over the counter and peak at him, he is looking around my living room, particularly at pictures of Lizzy and my younger years.

"I can't believe he did this, he's never like this with us!" Chris whispers to me, trying to get my attention. But the problem is that she can't whisper, so I think that he heard it. I widen my eyes at her and put a finger to my lips.

"Sorry" she mouths. The vase is full of I walk over to the dining room table and put it in the center, "Have fun" she whispers again.

I shush her then look at Four who is looking back at me with a curious expression. I shake my head and walk over to him. I grab his hand and we walk out the door, making sure that I have my purse with me. We walk out to his car in silence, he opens the door for me, then shuts it after I get in. I smile at his small actions.

After he gets in I decide I should figure out where we are going, "So, are you going to tell me where we're going?"

He looks at me with a smile, "That's for me to know and you to find out."

I laugh, but inside I'm a little sad, that's what my dad used to say to me when he was surprising me.

"Hey, you okay?" He asks me.

"Umm, yeah," I say with a sad smile. He furrows his eyebrows.

"You can tell me, what's wrong?" He is good at reading me, it's kind of scary.

"It's nothing, really," I don't want to bring our night down, and thankfully he doesn't push it.

We finish the ride after making small talk the whole way, and by here I mean Brown Bottle, a fancier restaurant by the woods.

"Reservation for Eaton please." Four asks the hostess. Huh, that's the first time I've heard his last name, I like it.

She leads us upstairs into a quiet room full of windows with a great view of nature, Four is next to me with his hand on my lower back guiding me. His touch sends a shock through me, and I have to withhold a shiver.

We are seated across from each other and given menus, "What do you think you're getting?" I ask after about 5 minutes have passed.

"I'm thinking about the lasagna. What about you?"

"I'm think that I'll try the fettuccine alfredo. It all looks good." He nods his head in response. I remember being taught at a young age to never order a more expensive meal than the payer, because it is disrespectful. So I secretly checked to make sure I had a less expensive meal with my question. And I was good because the lasagna cost more.

When the server comes we order our meals with waters, we talked how we weren't in the mood for wine. After the server leaves Four looks at me, I smile at him and he returns it.

He folds his hands in front of himself on the table, "So how was your day?"

"Not too bad, I figured out that I am going to have a student teacher in like two weeks, so that's new. And my day has been progressively gotten better as the day has gone on."

"Why's that?" he asks even though he already knows the answer.

"Well got to see you, so that's a plus," I respond. He smirks at me.

We continue to talk until our meal comes out. We eat silently, but it's not uncomfortable, we share meaningful glances through the course. Once I'm full I put a napkin on my plate, a habit I picked up from my mother. I look at Four and see that he has just finished his last bite of lasagna.

The server comes over and picks up some of our plates, "Is there any room for dessert?"

Four looks to me, I shake my head, "Oh man, I'm stuffed," he smiles at me.

"No thanks, we'll just take the check please." The server nods and heads off to get our check. He comes back not two minutes later and sets it down. Four grabs it and places his card in the slot.

"Thank you for dinner Four, it was wonderful"

"Anything for you," he replies, making me blush.

Once Four is done paying, we head out of the restaurant and back into Four's truck. It has gotten darker out, and we can still barely see the sunset.

He drives down the road a little ways, and pulls onto a dirt parking lot by a forest. He parks and gets out of the vehicle, coming over to open my door before I can. I hop down and we walk side by side down a trail I didn't see until now. Every so often we brush shoulders, and sometimes hands. We finally reach our destination, an opening through the trees where we can perfectly see the Cedar River flowing in front of us and a picture perfect sunset. There is a bench that we sit on and continue to look out at the scene in silence.

"It's so beautiful!" I exclaim.

"Yes it is." he responds. He interlocks his warm hand in my cold one, it fits just right in his big hand. I turn to look at him, and he turns his body towards me. I know that he is looking between my eyes and my lips, because I am doing the same.

"I really want to kiss you." he whispers down to me.

"What's holding you back?" I ask in an equally quiet tone.

"I don't want you to think that I'm going to fast."

"You're not." This must give him the confidence to kiss me, because he leans his head down further, cupping my cheek with the hand he's not holding. He goes back and forth between my eyes as he gets closer. His eyes flutter closed as his head tilts slightly to the right and our lips barely meet. My eyes also shut, my hand latches onto his forearm where he is cupping my face. He pulls back a little bit, then comes back stronger and harder. The hand holding mine lets go and travels up my arm so that it is also grabbing my face. His fingers behind my ear, and his thumb skimming my cheek bone.

When he finally pulls away he has a big smile on his face, "Wow, I've wanted to do that for a long time,"

"Me too" I reply.

After that we walk back to his truck because we can hardly see a thing, but this time we hold hands, and we're closer than before. He drives me home and walks me to my door. I kiss him one last time and walk inside after saying good bye. When the door finally shuts I bring out a goofy grin and skip to my bathroom to get ready for bed. I'm going to have a hard time seeing him and not kissing him now, I just know it.

I didn't realize how late it was until I looked at my clock, 9:07. We must have been out there for 2 hours. I wash my face and take out my contacts, getting on my PJ's and scurrying into bed. I fall asleep with a smile on my face.

 **Sorry that I didn't update a few days ago, I've been really busy with life, ugh. I did a little longer one today for you. Tell me how it is.**


	14. Chapter 14

I wake up to a buzzing noise coming from my right, I reach out blindly for it. I grab it right before I throw it onto the ground off of my night stand. I reach for my glasses and put them on then I squint my eyes and try to see past the blurriness. I see that Four sent me a message, I sit up in bed and smile while opening up the message, it reads _Good morning Beautiful!_

I wonder why Four is up so early, I look at the time on my phone, 8:49. Oh, I didn't realize that I slept past my running time. But in my defense I had one of the best nights sleep in a long time, oh well. I look back at my screen and reply back to Four, _Good morning Handsome!_

After I send it I blush because I've never called him that before, but then again he calls me beautiful in his texts. I get out of bed and get ready for the day as I await his response. I shower and put on yoga pants and a sweatshirt, my lazy day outfit. I throw my halfway dry hair up into a messy bun not wanting to bother with it. When I get out I see that I have a response from Four, _Have any plans for today?_

I sit on my bed, I think about his question, right before I send the text I remember Christina saying something about going to a club tonight. I erase what I have and reply, _I think that Christina is taking me out to a new club tonight. You should come with me, so I'm not the seventh wheel._ Christina told me that the whole gang goes and Four usually doesn't, so I might be left out.

Knowing Christina, she will probably do what she did with my date yesterday, go through all my clothes and do my hair and makeup. She most likely will pressure me into telling her all about my date, she'll squeal giving me a headache. What about Lizzy? I wonder where she will go, and Zeke is going, so where will Megan go? My thoughts are interrupted by my phone buzzing in my hand. _Haha Zeke is trying to get me to go to that too. I'm usually the 7th wheel with the group, so I would love to go with you, But I'm glad you're here now, Gorgeous._

I blush again at his text. He is so sweet. _Haha, me too. What do I do with Lizzy?_ After I send that text I realize how bad that sounded. It's like I'm saying how do I get rid of Lizzy. Oops, oh well, hopefully he gets what I mean.

 _Zeke's aunt lives over by me, her name is Tori. He usually drops her off there for the night. You could probably have Lizzy go with them. I'll ask him._ That reassures me a little, I don't want to give her to a babysitter that I haven't looked into yet.

 _Okay, thanks._ I go down the hall into Lizzy's room and look in, I have a panic attack when I see that she's not in there. I calm down when I realize that she spent the night at Zeke and Shauna's house. I breathe a sigh of relief and make my way into the kitchen. I put together a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and a glass of apple juice.

 _Zeke said to just drop off some of her stuff at his house then he can take her over to Tori's later. I can give you the address or I can take you there myself, so that way we can just go straight to the club. Whatever you want._

It would be nice to have him take me, then I would have more time with him. _You can take me there, if you want. Then we can leave from Zeke's._

I get an immediate response _I'll take you, are you doing anything until then?_

I smile at his question, _Nope, just sitting alone at home, why do you have an idea?_ I would love to spend the day with him again.

 _Do you want to do something?_

 _Yeah sure. Are you missing me? Haha_ I laugh after I send the text, because I'm teasing him a little bit.

 _Maybe just a little bit._ I giggle at his response.

 _Do you have anything in mind?_

 _Do you want to go mini golfing?_ That sounds fun to do, and it's perfect weather outside too. It's supposed to get to a high of 68 degrees today.

 _Yeah, sounds fun!_

 _Okay, I'll pick you up around 1?_ I smile to myself, happy I can do something with him today.

 _Sure!_

 _Great! See ya then!_

I should probably get an outfit ready for tonight, so I won't stress about it later. I walk into my room and look through my closet. I ruffle through my clothes until I find a black high-low dress. The front part stops a few inches above my knees and the back goes down to my calf. I pair it with black 2 in. heels, not so tall that I will fall, but enough for me to feel confident.

I take a picture of the outfit laid out on my bed and send it to Christina. I also explain that she won't be able to help me get ready for the club. But she is excited that I got Four to go, and she demands details. So I am extra glad that I'm not her Barbie doll today.

Since I already got dressed in decent clothing earlier this morning, all I need to do now is to apply a little makeup and fix my hair. I start with my makeup, putting on a little mascara, and chapstick. I will save the lipstick and other makeup for the club where I get more dressed up. Next I redo my hair, I take it out of the messy bun that it was in then I fix it into a better, but simple bun.

I keep my glasses on, not wanting to bother with my contacts. I have the black nerd glasses that I have had since I was in college. I don't like them that much, but some days like today, I really don't care. I know I should care about Four seeing me this way, but he'll see them sometime, it's just sooner than later.

I walk back into the living room and see that it is only 11, with a sigh I walk back down the hallway into Lizzy's room. I gather some clean clothes, toys, and books that she likes to read into a bag for her overnight stay at Tori's. I would clean her room for her, but it's already clean. She must be a neat freak like Caleb is.

Speaking of Caleb, I know that we got a letter in the mail yesterday from him. I forgot to tell Lizzy, but I know that she will be excited to hear what he has to say. I'll wait for her to come home tomorrow, then we can open it together.

I know that I should eat lunch before I go mini golfing, so I go into the kitchen and make myself Ramon noodles in the microwave. As I'm eating them, I sit in my lazy boy and read my library book. I am getting really into it and barely hear the doorbell being rung. I quickly wipe my face with the back of my hand to get rid of any leftover noodle sauce on it.

I walk to the door and open it with a smile on my face. I see Four standing there casually, he's wearing jeans and a black shirt, his hands stuffed in his pocket. He grins when he sees me and looks me up and down making me blush.

"Hi," I say in a shy voice.

"Hello Gorgeous!" he explains, making me blush harder and look down. But this action makes my glasses slip down my nose a little bit. I look back up and him and push my glasses back to the bridge of my nose.

"You can come in, I've got to grab Lizzy's things," I say stepping back to let him pass through the door. When he is in I walk into the kitchen to put my lunch bowl away and to grab Lizzy's things. I come back to him ready to walk out the door when he grabs me by the waist pulling me in for a hug. He kisses my forehead in the process. He pulls away and smiles down at me, I can't help myself when I stand on my tippy toes to give him a peck on the lips. I knew I wouldn't be able to get enough of them.

"You look great," he whispers to me because of our close proximity, "I like these glasses." He pats my nose with his finger while I smile at him.

"You look pretty great yourself," I respond, rubbing his chest through his shirt. He smiles at me and leads me through the front door.

We walk to his truck hand in hand, he opens my door for me, and shuts it after I'm in. We drive for 20 minutes before we pull into a dirt parking lot with a sign that says "Palmer's Family Fun". I can see that there are a few families here enjoying the jumping pillow, go-karts, driving range, batting cages, and the 2 courses of mini golf. There is a basketball hoop, picnic area, archery tag, and there are paintball courses on the other side of the fence. So I think that the paintball isn't part of Palmer's.

Four grabs my hand again as we head into the main building to pay for mini golfing. After he pays the $14 for our round of golf we pick out our clubs. He grabs the biggest one with a black handle, while I grab a smaller one with a green handle. He takes a blue ball while I grab a purple one. He also grabs a score sheet so we can figure out a winner.

"Which course do you want to do?" He asks me. I look and see that there is a young family playing on the course inside the fence, and that there aren't any people on the other course outside the fence.

"We should go on the outside one" He nods his head and walks towards the outside one.

"Ladies first," He exclaims when we reach the first hole. I set my ball down, it's a straight shot except for the two hills in the way. I putt the ball with a little strength to help it over the hills. Instead of going straight it curved a little bit and bounced off the side. Four goes up to putt, he lines it up and hits it. He raises his hands above his head as he gets a hole in one.

"Nice one!" I exclaim as he goes to grab his ball out of the hole.

"Thanks, but I think that I should get an award for doing that,"

"Oh? And what were you thinking?" I ask.

"I think that I should get a kiss for every hole in one I get." He says with a smile.

I giggle and kiss him on the cheek. But before I can pull away he grabs my shoulders and kisses me on the lips.

"That's more like it." He exclaims after we break apart, "I'll be getting a lot of those"

"A little confident I see" I say with an eyebrow raised. I finish my round by putting my ball into the hole. He doesn't know how competitive that I get, so this should be a fun game.

As the game progresses, we are evenly matched. The score is tied at 35, and we are on the 13th hole. He has given me 3 kisses for my hole in ones and I've given him 4. The next hole we have to aim the ball up a ramp into a cannon, where it comes out the other side by the hole.

Four makes it up in one try, but the ball spins around the hole and hits the wall. When I'm up he stands really close to me, I can even feel his breath on my neck. It is difficult to concentrate, so my first try, it comes back down the ramp. I groan in frustration, Four chuckles from behind me so I shoot him a glare. When I get back into my stance he is still there, so I turn around and walk him backwards by his chest, pushing him away from me. I get back into my stance and look over my shoulder at him, he is smirking at me. I putt the ball up the ramp, and it goes straight into the hole, but sadly it's not a hole in one.

The rest of the time is spent like that, trying to distract each other when we are putting. After the final hole I count up the score while Four puts away the clubs. Our balls got taken by the last hole, just like everyone else's.

The final score is Four - 51; Me - 53. Darn, I almost won.

Four comes back and sees the score, he smiles brightly at me and grabs my hand in his.

"That was a tough game, you definitely gave me a run for my money," Four says.

"Yeah, I probably would have done better if you weren't breathing down my neck, literally!" I exclaim with a shake of my head, throwing an easy smile his way.

"Hey! You did it too!"

"I can't reach your neck!" I proclaim.

"Okay, okay, you did well."

"Thanks, but I'm going to get you next time."

He chuckles, and opens the truck door for me, he gets in a starts off back to my house so that I can change. I see the time is 4:34, wow, time does fly when you're having fun. And I was definitely having fun.

 **So sorry this update took so long, I've been having trouble transitioning from one sport to the next. And having more homework piled on top of that. Thanks for sticking with me and for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15

We are on our way to Zeke's house, I am already changed into my clothes I laid out. I had put on eyeliner and eye shadow. I also put my hair half up half down and curled it while Four watched TV in my living room. Since Lizzy's things were in his truck already, I just had to grab my purse and my heels. I had walked barefoot to his car because I know the pain the heels will bring me once I put them on.

After a few turns we pull up into Zeke's driveway. I grab Lizzy's backpack and hop up the sidewalk to the front porch, because I refuse to put on my heels until we get to the club. Four watches me practically run up the driveway with an amused look on his face, he chuckles under his breath as he walks up to me.

"You're so cute," he murmurs before kissing my forehead. He turns to the door gives a swift knock then walks through the front door. Well so much for the knock, I think.

"Zeke!" He calls out startling me, he throws me an amused look after I jump.

"We're upstairs man" Four tugs my hand up the stairs, down the hall. We walk into a big cream colored room that I assume is Zeke and Shauna's. In the middle of the room is the bed against the wall. Lizzy and Megan are on it playing some sort of high-fiving game as they sing a song with it. After we come into the room Megan stops and waves at me.

"Hi Ms. Prior!" She exclaims. Lizzy turns around and squeals when she sees me. She stands on the bed and jumps into my arms. I spin her around making her giggle.

"Hi," she says through her laughing.

I laugh, "Well hi there! How are you?"

"I'm great! Are we going home? I want to stay with Megan!"

"No, Sweetie. You're not going home, you're going with Megan to her Aunt's house. You guys are going to spend the night there while I go out with my friends for a little bit."

Her face lights up when I say that she is going with Megan, "So I'm staying with Megan?" she asks with hope in her voice.

"Yes, you'll be with Megan and her Aunt for the night"

Zeke comes out of the bathroom in the far corner of the room, he is wearing about the same outfit as Four with jeans and a blue shirt instead of a black one. "Hey man! How's it going?"

He gives Four a 'bro' handshake, "Pretty good, how about you?"

"It's good here," Zeke comes over and hugs me after I put Lizzy back down to play with Megan. "And how's your girl?" I blush at his choice of words.

Four smiles and pulls me over to him into a one armed hug, "Amazing," he replies before kissing the side of my head.

Shauna comes out of the bathroom ending the awkward moment for me at least. She is wearing a red mid thigh dress. It is flowy on the bottom and hugs her torso, and her hair is down in soft curls. She has more makeup on than I've seen on her before with silver eye shadow, winged eyeliner, and red lipstick.

She comes up to me and gives me a hug pulling me away from Four, "Hey girl! You look great tonight."

"Thanks, you look amazing as well," I respond before letting go and backing into Four. He puts his arms around my waist.

"Well we should gather the kids and start heading out. Did you grab some stuff for Lizzy Tris?" Zeke asks me.

"Yeah I've got it here." I answer holding up the backpack.

"Okay," Shauna turns towards the girls on the bed, "Ladies, let's get ready to go."

"Where are we going Mom?" Megan asked.

"You and Lizzy are going to Aunt Tori's for the night."

"Okay," she said satisfied with the answer. I turn in Four's arms and he grabs my hand leading me out of the room. The others following us down the stairs and out the front door. I start to hop around the driveway again trying to avoid the cold cement. Four laughs behind me and scoops me bridal style into his arms making me squeal in surprise.

"Can't let you get cold feet," Four says with a sexy smirk.

I slap his chest, "I don't think that's gonna happen, not when I have you" I answer to his double meaning.

He walks to his truck and opens the door, setting me in the passenger seat. Zeke comes out of the house with the girls, they all climb into the back seat. Shauna comes out a minute later with her own pack for Megan. She also squishes into the back seat, it's a good thing that Tori lives close so that they aren't stuffed back there long.

When we pull up to Tori's house Shauna takes the girls up to the door. I follow them up so I can talk to her. I introduce myself and give her a little summary of Lizzy so she knows how she behaves. Tori seems like a nice person, so I feel more comfortable after our little conversation.

On our way to the club I decide to finally put on my heels so that I'm ready when we get there. We drive down Main Street and see all of the lights that outline the stores. We pull up into a spot by the Brickhouse. Voodoo Lounge, the club that we are going to is located upstairs from the Brickhouse. But since it's only 5:30, we are meeting the gang now and eating supper first, Voodoo doesn't open until eight anyway.

As we walk in I can already see Chris and Will sitting in a corner booth, sucking faces. I grab Four's hand a lead him to the corner, when I get there Chris and Will still don't seem to notice us. Four clears his throat and they spring apart, Will blushing red for being caught, but Chris is smiling wildly.

"Hey guys!" Chris says, "Don't be shy, come sit!"

I scooch in next to her, Four following me in then throwing his arm around me. Zeke and Shauna sit on the other side by Will.

"You look great Tris," Chris looks under the table, "And you're wearing heels!"

I roll my eyes at her, "So how long have you two been here?"

"Oh we just got here, not that long ago."

"And you couldn't wait for the food? Just had to start eating each other. That's nice," I exclaim with a smirk.

Chris slaps my arm, "Hey, at least I'm getting some action."

I furrow my eyebrows, and turn towards Four. I tap him on his chest breaking his conversation with Zeke from across the table, he looks down at me. I grab his face in my hands and pull him down, crashing our lips together. He is frozen for a second not expecting my movements, but thaws, closes his eyes, and kisses me back. His hands make there way onto my face, and slowly fall back into my hair. I decide to take it a step further and dart my tongue out a little to trace his lips. He opens his mouth and tilts his head a bit allowing entrance, our tongues meet in the middle and we both let out a little moan at the contact.

"Okay, okay. That's enough," Chris says breaking me out of my trance. I pull back a little from Four and give him one last peck on the lips.

I turn around to Chris, "What was that you were saying?"

She looks at me than at Four then lets out a laugh. I turn and look at Four who is looking at me with a shocked expression and wide eyes. I smirk at him when he gives me a curious look.

I lean up and whisper into his ear, "Just showing some action." He chuckles at me and shakes his head as he throws his arm back around me, pulling me into him. He kisses the top of my head then goes back to his conversation with Zeke.

Once Uriah and Marlene show up we order food and eat our supper. We talk and catch up on things until the bill is set down, we split it into couples bills. All the guys grab for the correct one and pay.

"You need to stop spoiling me," I say to Four after he pays for our meal.

"You'd better get used to it." Is his only reply. We make our way up the stairs to the Voodoo Lounge since it is now 8:18. We have our I.D's checked by the bouncers at the door, once we get in we take a second to look around.

It is split in half between bar and dance floor. On one half there is a bar that takes up the whole wall, there are comfy looking couches, lounge chairs, and tables placed strategically around the room that people are already occupying. The lights are dimmed along the walls giving it an eerie feeling. On the other half it is a lot darker, it's mainly lit up by the strobe lights on the ceiling or the flashing bright lights bouncing around the room. There are many people already on the dance floor area dancing to Confident by Demi Lovato.

Four takes my hand and walks over to the bar section, we sit down on one of the lounge chairs. It's a little uncomfortable, so he lifts me into his lap so we aren't squished. We watch our friends order a few drinks before hitting the dance floor. We both agreed in the car on the way to Zeke's that we wouldn't drink much if at all. Both of us have church tomorrow, and I still need to get Lizzy in the morning. We also wanted to leave earlier than the others, that's why we took his truck instead of Zeke's. They can get a ride home with Uriah and Marlene, or they can call a taxi.

"Come on guys! Don't be party poopers!" Chris has to yell at us because of the loud music. This isn't my typical environment, so I feel uncomfortable, but I do feel better with Four here with me.

I get off his lap and pull him up with me. I drag him onto the dance floor with me as the song changes to Run On Love by Lucas Nord. We dance with the crowd of people around us swaying to the beat of the song. I look up at Four and mouth the words at him, he smirks and shakes his head. When the chorus comes we follow the crowd, jumping. It's hot already am I'm pretty sure that by the end of this song I will be sweaty. The longer we stay on the floor the more I can feel the crowd moving in closer, as more people file into the club. We stay on the dance floor for a while working up a really good sweat, until Four takes me into the other side of the club so that we can sit back down.

He's hard to resist right now, he has a sheen of sweat across his face, his cheeks are flushed from exhaustion, and he is panting slightly. So as soon as we sit down I kiss him, surprising him again. We shift positions to where I am sitting sideways on his lap. We kiss more confidently, tongues tangling, and hands exploring. When we finally pull away, I realize how tired I am. So I lay my head on his shoulder, as he cradles my back.

"Are you ready to go home?" He asks into my ear. I look up at him and nod.

He gets up and I slide off his body, we go find our friends to say goodbye. When I get to Chris I can see that she is slightly tipsy, "Go get some Trissy!" She slurs a little when I say I'm leaving. I roll my eyes, take Four's hand, and we leave the busy club.

As we are driving to my house, I lean my head against the window and almost fall asleep.

"I'm not boring you, am I?" Four asks with amusement when he sees my half awake state.

I take a deep breath and mumble, "No not at all, just a little tired," I finish my sentence with a big yawn. He chuckles under his breath.

He pulls up into my driveway and gets out of the car with me. I'm really not trusting my feet right now, so he is practically carrying me to the front door.

"I had a good time today" he says as I'm fishing my keys out of my purse.

"Me too. We've got to do it again sometime, and I'm going to beat you" I answer as I start to unlock my door. I turn around and fall into him for a hug. He chuckles and holds me tight.

"Good night Tris, I'll see you tomorrow," he says kissing the top of my head.

"Night Four," I look up and give him a peck on the lips. He walks away after I go inside and shut the screen door. I wave when he pulls away, then I trudge to my room and throw on some pajamas before collapsing in bed.

 **I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in awhile! I just switched school sports into a new season, and club started to. I hardly have any time for myself anymore. Ugh. I'm going to do my best to update once a week, maybe every other week, it helps that I've sort of got a schedule down.**


	16. Chapter 16

The last few weeks have flown by, it's now the last week in September. Four and I have been hanging out a lot more since the club, we find time for ourselves, and sometimes we take Lizzy with us. Lizzy has been writing Caleb and Susan more now, she's always excited to get their response. My mother is still getting treatment, I need to go see her this weekend. Maybe I should take Four with me, that would be a step in the right direction for us. And it would get my mom off my back about it, she's wanted to meet him since Lizzy said something when I brought her there the first time. I'm supposed to get my student teacher today. I'm a little excited, I remember when I was a student teacher, it was fun.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts when Four wraps me in a backwards hug, my back to his chest, resting his chin on my head.

"Hey, where'd you go?" he asks.

"Hmm?" I respond still being pulled out of my thoughts. I look around the classroom, making sure that everything is in place. Four met at our house this morning and we walked to school. He was making sure everything in the gym was ready for the kids, he must have gotten it all ready.

"I watched you for 5 minutes and you just stood here," he says rubbing his hands up and down my arms sending shivers up my spine.

I turn to face him wrapping my arms around him, my chin on his chest looking up at him, "Mmmm, just thinking" I say vaguely.

"Care to share?" he asks while kissing my nose.

I smile up at him, "I think you should come with me this weekend to go see my mom."

He raises his eyebrows and gives me a small smile, "Meeting the mother, eh?"

I wrinkle my nose at him, "Only if you want to."

"I'd love to," he responds. He dips his head to my level and kisses me hard, slipping in a little tongue. I close my eyes and relish in the feeling of his lips on mine. We are still at it when we hear someone clear their throat. Four slows the kiss and runs his nose along the side of mine before landing his lips on my forehead. I turn my head to see a smirking Chris standing in the doorway of my classroom.

"Sorry to interrupt, but the kids are going to be showing up soon. And they don't need to be seeing this," she explains as she wags her finger at us then walks out of the room.

I look back up at Four and he gives me a smile and a last kiss. We hear voices coming from outside of the room.

"I'd knock before you went in there," Well that's definitely the voice of Chris.

"Haha, really? They're at it again?" That sounds like Zeke. Before I have time to think anymore Zeke comes barging through the door, "Darn it! I missed all the fun," he says after he sees that we're are just hugging.

"It's not for you to see anyways," Four says as he turns his back to Zeke with me still in his arms. He kisses me one last time, but this one is full of longing and love. After he pulls away I stand on my tippy toes and look over his shoulder at Zeke who is shaking his head at us.

"Where's Megan?" I ask finally realizing that she's not in here with him.

"She's with Christina and Lizzy, and I didn't want her to be here and see this," he says.

I nod my head in response. "Well I've better get going," Four says aloud before whispering in my ear, "We'll finish later." Causing a blush to rise on my face. He smirks at my reaction before turning around to talk to Zeke. They talk for a little bit and some of the kids show up. Four comes back over and gives me one last hug before heading off to the gym.

Just twenty minutes before school officially starts a young adult my age comes into the room looking around. I walk up to him.

"Hi, I'm Tris Prior." I say sticking my hand out for him to shake.

"Hi. Peter Hayes," he responds. He is taller than me, but not Four's height, he has sandy blonde hair and green eyes. The look on his face is hard for me to read, but I know that I don't like it. He looks me up and down, making me squirm. "The office sent me down here, am I in the right room?"

"Yes, we'll be working with the 2nd graders. Sound right?" Still a little nervous to be around him.

He nods his head. We talk for the next fifteen minutes as we wait for the bell. I learn that he goes to the University here, but his hometown is Dubuque, one of our rival schools that is two hours away. He has a younger brother who is two years behind him. Also that he lives on campus, in the dorms.

The bell rings, starting class, I make sure to introduce Peter to the students before we start our day. As time drags on I get more and more freaked out by the way he is looking at me. I decide I need a break. I know Four's schedule and I check the time realizing that he doesn't have anybody right now, since lunch is in half an hour.

"Peter," I say catching his attention, "I have to go out for a minute, can you watch the kids for a bit please? And make sure that they don't have any questions." They are working on adding and subtracting three digit numbers. So they might need help on some problems.

"Where are you going?" he questions me.

"To the bathroom, and I need to talk to someone, I'll be back before lunch," I respond before walking away. I know that I probably shouldn't leave him alone with the kids, but I'm already exhausted of the day. I make my way down the hallway and head into the gym, seeing Four getting things out from the closet, his back to me. It reminds me of the day I met him at back to school night, and how he and Lizzy had an almost instant connection. I walk over to him, he still doesn't hear me, so I jump on his back, causing him to freeze.

"Hey there number boy," I whisper into his ear, as I secure my arms and legs around his body. I feel him shudder and smirk to myself.

"You know, it's not good to attack an unsuspecting victim," he responds turning his head to the side, then hooking his arms around my legs for more support. He backs away from the closet and starts to spin around in circles. My eyes widen, and I squeeze him tighter, not wanting to fall off as he gets faster.

"No, no, no, no, no, noooo!" I exclaim with a smile as he continues to spin faster. I close my eyes to stop the blurriness from the fast passing objects. I duck my dizzied head into his neck, hoping soon he'll stop. Thankfully, he starts gradually slowing us down into a stop. I slide off his back, wobbly on my feet and tentatively open my eyes. My head feels like it's full of jello as it keeps spinning, and I'm swaying on my feet. I look at him and laugh, he looks dizzy as he tries to sit down. Instead I grab his hands and spin us the opposite way twice. This helps us to not be as dizzy.

He has a big smile on his face, "How'd you know that would work?"

I smile and respond, "My dad used to do that with me, and he'd finish by going the opposite way twice."

He gives me a sad smile, I've told him that my dad died, so he understands what this brings back for me. He also knows that's why I reacted when he said 'That's for me to know and you to find out' on our first date, that was one of my dad's quotes. He pulls me into a hug and kisses the side of my head.

"Sorry, I didn't know," he says with guilt laced in his voice.

"No, don't say that! I loved it, and now I can associate it with two of the best people in my life. It's good to remember sometimes." I explain as I pull back to give him a kiss.

"You know there's a closet right here, and I don't have a class for another twenty minutes," he mumbles against my lips. A giggle rises out of my chest, I pull away from him and slap his chest.

I try to respond to him through my laughs, "You sir, are crazy. I have to get back to the class. Just had to get away for a little bit."

He furrows his eyebrows, "Get away? From what? You love those kids."

"Yes," I sigh, "I'm still getting used to the student teacher."

"Do you not like her?"

"I'm not sure yet about _him._ " I soon as I say 'him' Four straightens up, making me roll my eyes at him.

"He? Is he bothering you?"

"Four, no, don't worry about him, he's fine," I say slightly lying, knowing that Four will get all defensive, "I've got to go, see you for lunch"

I kiss him quickly and start to walk away, but before I get to far he grabs my arm, pulling me back. I'm about to protest when he smashes his mouth to mine. He brings his hands to tangle in my hair, as mine find there way to the back of his neck. As our tongues battle, one of his hands roam my body, finding my belt loops to hook his fingers. He pulls me flush against him, making me moan at the contact. I have to force myself not to object when he slowly breaks away. I take deep breaths to slow down my heartbeat, and rest my forehead against his chest.

"I think someone is jealous," I state, my eyes still closed.

"Mmmm, just marking my territory," he rumbles. I laugh silently for a moment before I look up at him.

"I really need to get back now, he's going to think I feel in the toilet."

"It was well worth it." I laugh at his response.

"Indeed it was," I say before turning to leave.

"No goodbye kiss?" he asks. I can hear the pout in his voice.

"You are so insatiable," I counter throwing a wink at him over my shoulder.

I make it back to the classroom with seven minutes to spare, I had to stop in the teacher's bathroom to make sure that he didn't mess up my hair, which he did. So now I have it up in a ponytail. I look around and find Peter sitting in my chair, at my desk, looking at my pictures that I have set out.

I stride over to him and whisper-yell, "This is not what I told you to do."

"Well, does it look like they need help?" he says back.

My frown deepens, "You do not mess with my stuff unless you are told, and so far I'm not liking you in my class. If you keep this up, I'll report you to your professor and you will be kicked out of college. Don't provoke me," I hiss at him.

By the time I'm done with my spiel his face has gone from amused to frightened, hopefully now he'll know not to mess with me. Also, since he is only in his third year of college he is only with me for half the day every other day, so he'll leave during lunch, and I won't have to see him until Wednesday.

The lunch bell rings and the children line up by the door ready for me to lead them to lunch. I sigh and turn towards the children plastering a smile on my face.

"Let's get to lunch ladies and gentlemen!" I make sure Peter is out of the room before I lock my door, which I haven't needed to do before. Afterwards, I lead them down the hallway and into the lunch line, making sure the lunch teachers see them. I make my way into the teacher's lounge, not wanting to talk to anyone. Plopping down in my chair, I give a huff, close my eyes, and lean my head back.

"Hey! What's up? I heard that you got your student teacher today. That's exciting!" Chris exclaims while sitting across from me at the circle table. I groan, roll my head to the side, and glare at her. "Okay, don't tell me."

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just… ugh. I don't know what to say! I caught him looking at the pictures on my desk, it was way creepy. He doesn't listen to me, and he makes excuses. I may be overreacting a little bit," I clear my throat, "I may or may not have threatened to report him," I finish with a slight blush on my face.

Chris laughs out loud, "You _threatened_ him?!" She laughs some more, making me blush harder, "Oh, that's great! At least now he knows to take you seriously, you threatened him. Ha."

"What's so funny?" Four asks as he comes into the room, sitting down to my right. I look to Chris with pleading eyes, not to tell him. He'll get all defensive again. Apparently she doesn't see me, or she chose to ignore me.

Replying she says, "Tris threatened the student teacher because he was snooping in her stuff."

Four's head snaps to me, but I don't look at him, instead deciding to continue glaring at Chris. She has a gleam in her eye telling me that she did, in fact, see me, but she just wanted to get a reaction out of Four.

"Tris," his voice low, "You need to do something now before it gets worse."

"It's his first day, it's nerve wracking. I know the feeling, it just takes time to get settled in."

"He's probably one of those spoiled brats who usually get what they want, otherwise you wouldn't have done anything with the situation."

"It's fine Four," I hiss at him. There is a flare in his eye after I say that. He stands up and grabs my upper arm, pulling me out of the room.

"Let go!" I say trying to get out of his grip, "Four! Let me go!" I'm squirming away from him, he grabs me tighter making me tear up, "Ouch! Four! Let. Go." I rip my arm from his grasp, rubbing my bicep, where he was holding me. There is another flash in his eye, almost a look of fear or disbelief. He takes a few steps back, running his hands through his hair.

"Tris, I'm so sorry! God, what's wrong with me? Tris," he tentatively takes a step forward and reaches for me, but I lean away from him. "Tris, please! I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, please." He sounds almost desperate.

"Why?" I croak out.

"God, I don't know. It's just the emotions ran through me. I can't let you be around someone who's like that. Tris, I'm sorry," his eyes are pleading with me.

"I can handle myself! You can't do that for me, and you can't tell me what to do! Do you not think so? Do you think I'm that weak to let someone use me as a floormat?"

"No! No! Tris, I know you can handle yourself. It's me. I'm protective, I can't let it happen again, I can't do it again. I need you, Tris. You hold me together, you keep me sane. You're the one I want, I've never felt this way with anyone else." As he's talking, he is slowly getting closer to me. "You keep me whole, every time I'm around you, I want to spill it all. I want to tell you everything. I can trust you. I love you. I love you. I'm in love you, Tris"

My breath catches as he says this, I look into his eyes, which are a stormy dark blue. They speak the truth, he means it. So many emotions flow through those eyes, and the one that stands out is love.

"Four," I let out a shaky breath.

"Tris, I know it, I know I love you," he takes my hands in his, "I've known, Tris. I know it's fast, but you're the only one that can make me feel happy to get up in the morning." He pulls my stiff body into his arms. I don't know what to do, I really like him. Do I love him? He does make me very happy, I'm sad to be away from him, and I always enjoy his company.

I didn't even realize that he had kissed my forehead and had pulled away from me. I grabbed him, and pulled him back into my arms.

"I'm in love with you too, Four," I mumble into his chest. He pulls back with a look of disbelief on face.

"Don't-"

I cut him off, "No, I really do Four, I love you. You make me happy, you make me a better pe-"

This time he cuts me off with a kiss, pushing me into the wall. But soon we are interrupted by the bell ringing, signalling that it is halfway through lunch. We break apart smiling at each other, all problems forgotten for now.

"I love you Tris."

"I love you Four."

"Don't call me that."

"Then what do I call you?"

"Nothing, yet. I guess we just have a lot to talk about." I nod in agreement. He takes my hand and we walk back to the lounge.

 **Hey guys, so sorry I haven't updated. I've been really lazy over break, no excuses. I'm not sure when I'll update again, but hopefully it doesn't take as long as this one did. Thank you all for your support and reviews! It makes my day when I see them and know that you are all enjoying my little story.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Oh man guys. Over 5 months! I can't believe that it's been so long! I haven't had any time to write, but now that school is done, I have some time to do things without being interrupted. But I am on two really hard and time consuming teams, where I have no time on the weekends. And I go to camps during the week. So I'll do my best, I'm definitely not making any promises though. FYI there is talk of abuse.**

The rest of Monday's school day goes by quickly, but my mind is still on the fight I had with Fo-, I guess I can't call him that. So I guess my boyfriend? We never really made it official. My mind is on the fight my boyfriend and I had. I wonder if he is going to tell me about the past that people can't seem to get out of him. Maybe this will be a good thing? I guess we'll find out.

I quickly get the kids ready for dismissal, grabbing their coats and backpacks because I was so deep in my thoughts. The bell rings and the kids file out the door talking amongst themselves, except for Megan who is slowly walking towards me.

"Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Yes, why do you ask?" I respond, tossing in a smile for her reassurance.

"I saw you and," she stops and looks around to see if anyone else is listening, then whispers, "Four, in the hallway during lunch. You looked a little scared," Then she giggles, "But that's okay, 'cause I thought Four was scary at first too."

My eyebrows shoot up surprised, I thought we were in the empty hallway. "Why were you in the hallway?"

"I had to go to the bathroom, and I heard you guys talking, so I snuck around the corner." She puts her head down like she is ashamed.

"Yes, I am fine, thank you for asking, Four and I just had a little misunderstanding it's okay. But how about we just keep this between us?" I want to make sure that Zeke doesn't hear this.

"Okay!" She says before bounding out of the room. I sigh and turn back to my desk to gather the papers from today. I neatly place them in the black backpack that I use to take home with me. I also have to write a small section about how my first day with a student teacher went. I'm not sure if I should just say it was fine, and see how Wednesday goes. I quickly write down my opinion before turning around to drop it off at the office on my way out. I walk out of the room making sure to turn off the lights and lock the door.

I continue down the hallway and into the office, I drop the papers onto the secretary's desk before going to the back entrance. Lizzy and I always go home out this door, so she is waiting there for me. We walked to school today, so we start out the back entrance. It's a beautiful day outside especially for it being this late in September. The bright sun is out and the light wind is giving us a nice breeze. Fo- ugh, HE told me that he had to get some stuff at his house before he came over for our talk, so Lizzy and I are walking home today.

"How was school Lizzy?" I ask her once we get a little ways from the school.

"It was great today! In art we gotta make these shapes with clay, and I made mine into an animal! Guess what animal I did!" She exclaims.

"Hmmm. Did you make a fish?" This is a good distraction from the talk I'll be having later.

"Nope!" She giggles at my wrong answer, "Try again!"

"How about a tiger?" I ask again.

"Not even close! Again!"

"A sheep?"

This time all she does is laugh.

"I don't know, tell me."

"I made a dog! I really wanna dog, can we get one please?"

"Umm, honey I'll need to think on that one" I wonder where this request has come from, maybe Caleb and Susan won't let her get one. And now she thinks she can get the dog out of me.

"Please?" She pushes, using her big green puppy dog eyes to try and persuade me.

"What are we going to do with it when we are at school? Or when you go home with your parents?" I ask.

"We can build it a doghouse, with Four's help and play fetch with it, it would be so fun!" She says as if I hadn't asked anything.

"Lizzy I'll have to think about it." She smiles really big knowing that she has the idea in my head. She really is too much like Caleb, he can do the same thing, they're too good at persuading me.

"Okay!"

We finally get to our house, Lizzy drops her backpack at the front door and runs into her room. She comes back out with one of her favorite movies, _Mulan_. A disney princess based in China. I think that it is a cute movie, and don't mind watching it from time to time.

"Can I watch _Mulan_ before supper, please?" She begs me.

"Only after you pick up your backpack and put it away. And do you have homework missy?" I ask.

"Nope! I finished my math during school!" She bounds to the door and grabs her backpack taking it to her room. I put in the DVD for her and play it as she comes skidding back into the living room, jumping on the couch.

"Thanks Auntie!"

"No problem Lizard" I respond giving her a kiss on her head. I walk into the kitchen to make a small snack for us, peanut butter and celery. I make three sticks of celery spreading peanut butter in the middle of them and cut them in half taking two for myself. I walk back into the living room and set them on the end table next to where she is sitting on the couch.

"Thanks" She mumbles while grabbing a celery stick and sticking it in her mouth, rubbing peanut butter all over her chin. I roll my eyes and go to grab her a napkin. I quickly change into more comfortable clothes, a big green sweatshirt and black leggings. I take out my contacts and put on my glasses before I sit down next to Lizzy, anxious for the talk I know is to come. My thoughts are on what he is going to reveal to me, it was scary the way he pulled me into the hallway. He even looked scared himself after he realized he had held me so hard. People have said that he has had a tough life, but what kind of tough life? Strict parents? No parents? Family death? I guess he'll tell me soon enough. I know that I want to tell him everything also. I've told him a lot, but not the major details.

I hear a car door shut pulling me out of my thoughts, I stand up and walk to the door. I wipe my hands on my sweatshirt before I open the door for him.

"Hey" he gives me a small, quick smile as he walks through the door.

"Hi" I reply giving him a peck on his cheek.

Lizzy turned around when she heard his voice, "Hey Four!"

He forces a chuckle before responding, "Hi Lizzy"

"Is Four here to watch the movie with us?" Lizzy asks excited at the thought of Four joining her.

"No honey, Four and I have some things to talk about, so we are going to be in my room. That means that there are no interruptions, so just stick in another movie when this one's done."

She frowns because Four isn't here for her, but when she hears that she can watch another movie she smiles. "Okay, have fun!" She exclaims before turning back to her movie.

Four grimaces at this, knowing that this isn't going to be a fun talk. I take his hand and walk to my bedroom, closing the door behind me.

My tan room has a queen sized bed in the middle, brown night stand on the far side of it and a long dresser next to the door. The closet is opposite the bed, and next to it is the door to my bathroom. We both sit down on my bed stick straight staring at the dresser in front of us. Neither one of us knows how to start this conversation, so we sit in awkward silence.

"Well… I guess I can start" I say, not liking how I sound like I'm about to begin a presentation.

"You don't have to, I can" Four responds hurriedly, but he seemed relieved that I was going first.

"It's fine Four" He shakes his head.

"Don't call me that."

"Then what do I call you?" I ask exhausted.

"Tobias, my name's Tobias." He mumbles putting his head down, he almost looks ashamed of his name.

"Tobias" I repeat, rolling it off of my tongue and giving a small smile. He does seem like a Tobias, "I like it."

He keeps his head down, so I move my head to be in front of his. I look him in the eyes and tilt his head up with my hands on either side of his face. "It's a beautiful name Tobias" I whisper to him before kissing him on his lips.

After that it seems like the awkward barrier is broken, so we are now more comfortable telling each other things. I move to sit up on the blue duvet, against the headboard of my bed, patting the spot next to me. He moves up with me, sitting at my right side.

"Well you know a little about my dad, and we are going to visit my mom, so I'm going to tell you more about my father:

"Well, it was the last day of school, and I was having a happy day. I was saying bye to all of my teachers because I was in 8th grade, I would be at the high school the next year. I got home and my mom made us one of our favorite meals to celebrate, spaghetti. As you know my dad was a doctor, a trauma surgeon to be exact," I look at Tobias and he nods his head, taking my hand in his lacing them together. "He had an emergency call right after supper. It was 6:28 the last time I saw my father alive. He went and had to perform surgery on a man who had shot his son, and then tried to commit suicide." Tobias tenses up, squeezing my hand a little when I say this, but I continue on, "Something must have happened, an argument or something… but the kid was… he was shot in the shoulder, and I think the man shot himself in the chest, it was close to his heart, but not enough to kill him, at least not right away. It was his son that got to the phone to call the police. My dad managed to save the kid, but his dad died because of the loss of blood." This part always makes me emotional, my lip starts to quiver, and I squeeze my hands into fists, well the best I can with one of them in Tobias'. " After he was done he texted my mom around 3 in the morning saying that he was on his way home, just like he did after every emergency call he had gotten. But, he didn't make it home, it was snowing hard that night, and a car slipped on black ice, running head on into his car. He died on impact, so he didn't feel anything… at least that's what I tell myself." When I finish there are silent tears falling down my face, and I stare straight forward almost in a shocked state, just like when we found out.

Tobias takes one look at my face before pulling me onto his lap, cradling me like a baby. His arms coming together around my waist, and I lean against his shoulder tucking my head in his neck.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that."

I sniffle, "But it's only made me stronger, yes, it would've been nice for my father to see me graduate, or to see his grandchild. But life's not fair, times are tough, and you've gotta move past it. I haven't forgotten him, never will, but he'll always be watching me from somewhere up there, you know?"

All Tobias does is nod, words seem stuck in his throat. Since I've gotten this far, I might as well tell him everything. I hadn't planned on telling him all of this, but it's not that bad after I got past the hard stuff.

"You know how my mom has Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia? When it first started she had bad seizures really early in the morning, that's why I get up early, because I usually had to help her get through them, or get her medicine when it was too bad. But later she was able to get improved medication, so they stopped, but I was paranoid, I couldn't lose her too. I always woke up around 4:30 and checked on her, to make sure she was still breathing. She had to make it through, but she's tough, she often reminds me to relax and not stress out when she's the one sitting in the hospital. Can you believe that? She's worried about me, my dying mother…" I trail off putting my head in my hands. I am breaking on the inside, I can't lose her. She needs to be here to see me get married, and see my children. I shake my head and sob, my heart aching for my mother. "It's harder because she's alive, and I feel that I can do something about it, but it seems that she just keeps getting worse. She says she's fine, but I know her, she's in pain."

Tobias says nothing, but rubs his hand up and down my back, slowly soothing me from my grief. He takes a deep breath a few minutes after I've calmed down.

"I've had a childhood, as you may have heard," I nod my head, thinking back to Chris's talk about him, "Marcus, my father, wasn't a great man. He was verbally and physically abusive to my mother for as long as I can remember. I would only get the verbal part but," he sucks in another breath, "I heard everything that he did to her, her screams and cries for help. But I was too much of a coward to do anything about it. My mom always begged him not to hit me, because I went to school and people knew me, she always wore the bruises meant for both of us. But she was a stay at home mother, and she almost never went out, some people didn't think I even had a mother." I feel something hit my arm where I am holding him. Looking down I see a tear, he had a lone tear fall out of his watery eyes. He doesn't acknowledge me looking at him, but just continues on, "Marcus was a businessman, he left for trips occasionally, and that's when my mom would go out and take me some place fun, like the park, or the lake. When I was 12, Marcus left and my mom was getting me ready for a day outside in the freshly fallen snow. Just as we were about to head out the door, his car came back into the driveway. Mom rushed me back inside and made me stay in my room, while she was trying to take off her thick clothes and into something she usually wore around the house. He came inside and saw her, when they started yelling I peeked out my door to see if I could help her. It was easy for me to see everything because their room was across the hall from mine. He was going through all of her stuff asking what else she'd been hiding from him. She was begging for him to stop, and just let it be. What he said to her was horrible," I try to withhold the tears in my eyes as I look back up at him, his eyes are glossy and he has a far away look in his eye. "He grabbed her and threw her to the ground, he kicked her and punched her. I shut my door after that, I couldn't bear the thought of her getting thrown around like a rag doll. I tried to drown out her moans and cries, but they were scarred into my memory. He left quickly after that, his meeting was out of town, he had just forgotten something at home. I went out to check on her, she was in a pile of her own blood, beaten and bruised. I checked her pulse, it was barely there. So I called the police, they took her to the hospital, but she couldn't hold on anymore. She died that night in the hospital. My mom's close friend Hana came when she heard what had happened. She took me in with her two sons Zeke and Uriah. When the police went to investigate Marcus they said that he checked out because people verified that he was on his work trip at the time, so there were no charges pressed on him. I started a new life with Hana and the boys. I got the courage to confront Marcus before I left, so I went back to see him. When I got there Marcus was drunk, and he blamed everything on me. He swore and started swinging at me. I tried to fight back, but he was stumbling around. I wasn't sure what he was doing until he pulled out a gun. He pointed it at me and I froze while he was saying I took everything away from him. All I remember is the jolt backwards and I fell unconscious. I woke up after what seemed like forever with searing pain all over my body. I dragged myself over to the house phone on the end table and called the police. I was again unconscious when they came, and woke up to Hana telling me that Marcus is dead." I sit up straight at this realization. I look at Tobias and see him looking back at me with a sorrow filled face. "I'm so sorry Tris." I don't respond, all I can do is stare wide eyed at the boy my father saved the night he died.


	18. Chapter 18

**Happy Holidays! Life sure is busy! I'm doing the best I can, I've been sick since Thanksgiving. There is also a lot going on in my athletic life, so I'm trying to keep up with academics. I hope you are all enjoyed the time off while you had it, and hopefully it's not a busy start. Thanks for all of your support! Keep reading!**

I sit there in shock. Repeating the words in my head. Over and over again. _He was the last person my father saved. It's like my father sacrificed his life for Tobias._ I stare blank eyed at him. Watching him bite his lower lip and wring his hands in nervousness. Out of nowhere I pounce on him, tackling him down onto the bed. All of the emotions I had pent up come rushing out, I start bawling into his shirt, good thing I already have taken off my glasses, I might've crushed them. He's not sure what to do, not expecting my reaction, so his hands are hovering over my back. He lets me have my moment, finally reacting and rubbing my back. When my tears finally start dying down, I pull back, sitting up, and look at him through my teary eyes.

"Tris," he whispers, eyes wide and shaking his head a little, like he is not sure what to say or do.

My bottom lip quivers a little bit and I shake my head, not knowing what to say. I lay back down, putting my forehead to his, but lower my eyes. Finally, I realize that, at the moment, I'm practically straddling him, and blush. I try to move, but his arms tighten around my back, pulling me closer to him. My head shifts to the crook of his neck, and my arms find a more comfortable place under his arms, and curling back up to hold onto his shoulders. I tug the hair tie out of my hair, knowing I'm about to get a headache from these overwhelming feelings. Tears still slowly fall down my face, and I'm sure he can feel them through his shirt. I feel emotionally drained, and he is starting to lull me to sleep when he starts playing with the ends of my hair.

I wake up to the sound of laughter, and a finger poking my face. My eyes slowly open, and I see that I am in the same position as when I fell asleep. Tobias is laying down sideways on the bed, with me still straddling him, my knees are on opposite sides of his hips. But this time, one of his hands is in my hair, holding my head to him. When I finally come to my senses, I realize that it was Lizzy who woke me up, I look up at her just in time to see her also poke Tobias. Hearing his groan of protest to the rude awakening, Lizzy giggles more and jumps on top of me, making us a pig pile of three. We both groan at the extra sudden weight, but Lizzy doesn't seem to care, bouncing up and down. Tobias rolls all of us over, and we flop down onto the bed, this brings Lizzy into another fit of giggles.

"Do I hear a lizard?" Tobias mumbles into my messy hair.

"Yes you do!" Lizzy exclaims as she crawls over both of us, "SssSss"

I start to laugh, "What was that? Are you a snake?"

"No! I'm a lizard!" She quickly responds, standing up on the bed over us.

"That was a snake I heard" Tobias answers for me.

Lizzy flops back to the bed next to Tobias with a sigh, "Then I don't know what a lizard sounds like."

Tobias and I both laugh at her sudden sullenness. "What'd you come in here for?" I ask.

"The movie's been done for awhile and I get bored doing puzzles. And I'm hungry" she explains as she pats her tummy.

"Well, how about you get that tummy to the kitchen, and we'll be out in a bit, you decide what you want." I explain while sitting up, wanting to talk to Tobias.

"Okay! But hurry up!" She responds before she bounds out of the room.

I look down to Tobias who is laying on his back, arms behind his head. Thankful that we had a bit of distraction, but knowing the conversation must continue. We stare at each other for a bit. I know we have to talk, but I'm not sure how to start. He props himself up on his elbows, and tucks my hair behind my ear.

"I'm so sorry Tris" he finally chokes out. I bite my cheeks in order to stop myself from crying again.

"It's not your fault" I respond, putting my hand on his cheek, and trying to smile.

His eyebrows furrow and he pulls his face away from me, "Yes, it is! I'm the reason your dad died that night, if I would've just stayed away…"

I take a deep breath, "No, Tobias, you were brave, you were a victim and you stood up for yourself." He starts shaking his head. My voice rises, "Did you know he had a gun? Did you pull the trigger? Was it you who made the doctors schedules, making it my dad's turn for the on call shift? Hmm? Because from what you told me… it's not your fault."

"But, if I hadn't gone back… if I hadn't antagonized him… none of this would've happened!" He exclaims, a few tears leaking out of his eyes. He has moved to a laying down position again, arms outstretched, and staring at the ceiling.

"You're right." His head snaps to me, fear flashing in his dark eyes. " _None_ of this would've happened." I turn over placing a hand on either side of his body. "I wouldn't have moved here after college" I start to crawl towards his head, "I wouldn't be working at Southdale." I reach his head and lean down, my hair curtaining us as I whisper, "I wouldn't have met you." I lean all the way and kiss him hard on the lips. Before he recuperates I pull away and start kissing to his left ear. My body stretches out against his, and I slide my hands up his arms to clasp with his. I turn my head a little bit to whisper in his ear. "It made me stronger, and I met you. I wouldn't change it for the world"

He turns his head, and looks me in the eyes, his still shining with unshed tears and his voice hoarse, "I thank God that I met you." He puts his lips to my forehead and inhales deeply. His fingers tighten against mine, then he moves his head down to where his forehead is against mine. Soon we hear the pitter patter of little feet running down the hallway. "She is a persistent one." He chuckles lightly, giving my forehead one last peck before I start to get off of him.

"Yes, she takes after her father, for sure" I respond just in time for Lizzy to come barreling through the door.

Tugging on my shirt she complains, "Come on! Food, please!"

"Okay, okay. We're coming" Standing, I reach out to take Tobias' hands and pull him up with me. "Have you figured out what you want to eat young lady?"

"Mhmm. I want grilled cheese! It's yummy and will make my tummy warm!"

Laughing I respond, "It sure will, Lizzy" I head to the kitchen and take out the bread and Velveeta. I also take out the tomato soup that I always eat with my sandwich. Next I take out a skillet and small pot, setting them on the stove on medium heat. Pouring the tomato soup in the pot I turn around just in time to collide with Tobias. He catches me by my forearms as I stumble back a few steps.

"Woah, you okay?" He asks, after I nod my head he goes on, "Do you need any help with anything?"

I thinking, I look over my shoulder at the stove, "You can stir the tomato soup while I work on the grilled cheese." After he responds with a nod, I grab him a rubber spoon to stir the soup with. Satisfied that I won't need to focus on that, I start to butter multiple pieces of bread on both sides. Calling over my shoulder into the living room I ask Lizzy, "How many sandwiches do you think you'll be able to eat?"

"Maybe two, I'm so hungry" she groans, leaning over the couch upside down. Shaking my head with a small laugh, I repeat the question to Tobias, and figure out that I'll need to make eight sandwiches, and I might have some left overs for tomorrow. After the buttering, I add the cheese to every other piece. Finally having all the ingredients put together, I set two full sandwiches in the skillet, because that is all that fits.

As I wait for the sides to brown, Lizzy takes my phone that I left on the counter and plays Pandora on shuffle. The first song to play is "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift. Loving the song, Lizzy sings almost every word, while crazily dancing around the room, throwing hand motions this way and that. Trying to make a motion for every word she shakes her head and waves her hands while the song plays the chorus.

"Shake it off, ah ah shake it off!" She squeals continuing her dancing, causing both Tobias and I to snicker at her antics. I flip the sandwiches, revealing the Shortly the song ends and the next one starts, "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman. This is one of my favorite songs that I always sang and I danced with my dad. Apparently Lizzy knows this song as well, because she takes Tobias by the hand.

"I know you aren't my dad, but can you dance with me?" She asks. And this statement nearly both breaks and swells my heart, oh this girl, I love her so much. Tobias looks at me, almost unsure, but I give him a nod with my head, encouraging him to dance with her.

"I would be honored" he said with a small bow, making her giggle. She places her small hands into his large ones, and her feet on his. They rock back and forth in a circle until the chorus where Tobias spins her, then pulls her back. This time she leans her head against his ribs. They continue swaying and circling.

By the time they're done dancing to the song, I have two of the grilled cheeses done, I grab a small bowl of tomato soup and set them both down at the table. Lizzy sits down at the table and chows down on her sandwiches. The rest of them are done while I hum to the next few songs playing. Sitting at the table I cut my grilled cheeses in fourths, just like I have been doing since I was a little girl.

Tobias raises an eyebrow at how I eat my food, but I roll my eyes and continue eating. Once Lizzy is done eating, she puts her plates in the sink and goes to her room. Only now do I realize how late it is, past 8 o'clock. Our impromptu nap must've lasted a few hours for this much time to slip past us.

Lizzy comes back down the hallway in her pyjamas. She yawns and rubs her eyes. "I'm tired, I think that I should go to bed."

"That's a smart choice Liz" I answer, somewhat surprised that she would want to go to bed early.

"Good night!" She says as she gives me a hug. "Thanks for dancing with me Four"

"Anytime Lizard." Tobias responds, standing up from his spot at the table and leans down to hug her. "I enjoyed dancing with you."

She giggles and goes back down the hallway to her room. I yell, "Make sure you brush your teeth missy!"

Once she's finally back into her room, I turn to Tobias. "I had a nice night… after we got everything out of the way first"

He nods his head, "Yeah, it was tough, but we needed to talk about it"

"How many people know about it?" I ask wanting to know if there are more than Zeke and Uriah knowing what happened.

"Umm, I don't tell people things like this often, but Shauna and maybe Marlene, I'm not sure if Uriah told her or not. I was the one to tell Shauna though, she was one of my better friends when I got here. Yes, Zeke was outgoing trying to drag me places, but Shauna understood, and helped me a little bit."

"That's nice that you have a tight knit group of friends that you can trust."

"Yeah they're pretty great. Hey, uh, I should get going, let you get some rest"

"Okay" I say quietly.

He comes over to me, and wraps his arms around me. I lean into him and take a breath, I'm a lot more tired than I thought I'd be. It was a very emotional day, it wiped me out. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

I nod my head, still quiet.

"Hey, are you okay?" I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm being emotional and I don't know why. I must make some sort of face, because before I know it he's pulled away from me and is bent over to look at me face to face. "What's wrong? Tris…"

I start to breath heavy, not understanding my reactions to him saying he has to leave. Tobias starts to pull me towards my bedroom, sits me on my bed and squats in front of me. "Hey, hey look at me" I shift my eyes to his concerned ones. To try and calm down my breathing his tells me to breath with him. Slowly he gets my heart rate back to normal. He lays me down on my bed and climbs in next to me on my right.

He stays next to me rubbing my back, as I practically lay on him. My leg tossed over his, and my arm thrown over his chest.

As I'm about to fall asleep I feel him move to get off the bed, I grab him, "Don't leave"

"I've got to go Tris," he tries to reason.

"No, stay. Please."

"Okay, just let me shut off the lights." I finally let go of his shirt, he gets up and shuts off the lights, than messes with his phone for a bit.

"What're you doing?" I mumble, trying to stay awake.

"Setting my alarm, I've got to get home sometime to change sometime." He seems to be stalling.

"What is it?" I whimper, wanting him back next to me.

"Um, can I take my shirt off? I sleep better with it off," he sounds uncertain.

"Yes, don't let me stop you."

I hear the rustling of clothes then he comes back. I feel his bare chest under my hands. He grabs my hand and kisses my palm before placing it back on his chest.

"Thank you" I whisper against his shoulder where I am laying.

"Anything for you"

The last thing I remember before falling asleep is the brush of my lips over the scar on his shoulder.


	19. Chapter 19

**Sorry again for the last update, things are crazy, I'm getting sick. But hopefully things slow down after school ends in about a month.**

The next morning I am woken up by a shriek of noise coming from behind me. I groan and curl up hoping it will go away. I soon feel movement from around my waist, Tobias' hand reaching behind him to get his phone. We must've switched positions last night, because now I'm on my left side with him spooning me from behind. I peel open my eyes and turn my head to see him grab his phone. The phone's brightness is too intense for this early in the morning, causing him to squint, peeking one eye open to silence it. After the noise is finally silenced he lets out a long, heavy sigh.

"I should be going," he says, molding back around me, rubbing his hand up and down my right arm.

I grumble, not ready to get up for the day, "What time is it?"

"Half after six," he replies. This startles me, I never sleep in, I usually wake up around 4:30.

"Really?" I ask, flipping around to look at him. Our faces are on the same pillow, with our noses practically touching each other. A big smile takes over my face that he notices.

"What?" he questions as a smile starts to overtake his face as well.

I throw my arm into the air and flop onto my back, the smile never leaving my face, "I think that this is the longest I've ever slept in, like ever."

He rolls so that his head is in the crook of my neck and shoulder with his left arm across my stomach. He is halfway on top of me. "I know the feeling."

I cradle his head to me, running my fingers through his thick brown hair. I feel him sigh against my neck and nuzzle in closer. I just love his hair, it's so thick but soft. I start to scratch his scalp, then hear him moan from the feeling.

"You're making it hard for me to leave," he says after a while.

"And you're making such an attempt to get up" I retort back.

He chuckles at my sarcasm but doesn't move from his spot. We sit in silence for a bit with my nails going through his hair. Soon I feel his breathing even out, I smile realizing that I made him fall back asleep. I turn my head and decide to wake him in ten minutes, at seven o five. I'm content with just laying with him like this, being able to feel him. For the next ten minutes I continue running my fingers through his hair and down his back as far as I can reach.

When I see that the ten minutes are up, I start to slowly shake him.

"Tobias, we've got to get up now" I say. He groans but doesn't move. I smile, "Come on, up" He shakes his head, "Yes, come on big boy"

"I don't wanna move" he slurs, still sleepy.

"I know, I don't either, but we have school today, come on" I respond tapping his back.

He lifts his head and squints at me, than drops it down back onto my neck with a groan of protest. I put my hands under his shoulder and try to shove him off of me, but he's too heavy and he hardly moves. He gives another groan, but this time it is laced with laughter. I try again and this time he helps me out and flops over on his own.

I sit up and scoot so that my back is against the headboard. I grab my glasses off of the night stand where I laid them last night and put them on. I look down at him to see him looking up at me. I am captivated by his deep blue eyes, he is so handsome with his thick brown hair begging me to run my hands through it, thick eyebrows and enchanting eyes, slightly crooked in his nose, a thin upper lip but thick lower that are so soft and kissable, and his strong jaw. He also has the five o'clock shadow because he hasn't shaved yet today that just gives him the most detectable look. Than my eyes move further down to admire his toned body, and I try not to gawk at his nicely sculpted abs.

When I make my way back up to his eyes he has his eyebrow raised and an amused look in his eye. I quickly look away as my face flushes. He sits up and kisses my forehead before climbing out of bed to grab his shirt off the dresser where he left it.

"The feeling is mutual" is all he says.

"Wh-what?" I ask not yet over my shyness and not really understanding what he is saying.

"I think you're pretty good-looking as well" he clarifies with a smirk. I gape at him, my eyes wide, and I can feel the temperature rising in my face as it heats up once again. I look away and scramble out of bed to get ready. I hear the scrape of keys being picked up off of my dresser as I walk to my closet to find clothes for today.

I feel Tobias tug on my arm to spin me back around to face him. He cups my face in his large hands, "You're beautiful, don't let anyone tell you anything different." I melt at his words and sink into him when he brushes his lips over mine. "I'll see you later"

"Bye," I whisper as he pulls away from me and out the door. I'm pulled out of my trance he put me in when I hear his car start in the driveway. Grabbing clothes, I go through my morning routine easily than wake Lizzy up for school shortly when I'm done.

Later in the week, Lizzy comes down with a bad cold from one of the kids that had it in her class. I call the school and tell Ms. Timothy, the secretary, that we aren't going to make it in today, thankfully they had an available substitute teacher to take over for me.

I feel so bad for Lizzy, she was all chipper last night and now she moans on the couch with a horrible cough and high fever. I gave her cough medicine earlier when she woke up, and now I place a cold, damp rag on her forehead to hopefully bring down her fever.

With Lizzy napping on the couch where I can see her, I walk into the kitchen to make some chicken noodle soup for lunch when she wakes up. My mom always made me this soup when I was sick and it seemed to make me feel better, and the warm broth helped relieve some pain from my sore throat. Hopefully, Lizzy is the same way and feels a bit better after some warm soup in her. Once the chicken noodle soup is made and waiting to be warmed up in the microwave, I sit down in the living room lazy boy and grab my book that I've slowly been reading over the weeks.

After a few hours, near noon, I hear Lizzy stir from her nap. She coughs hard and long as she wakes up. I put my book down and walk over to her side, I squat down in front of her. She opens her eyes and I see that they are still dull green from the sickness. I take off the now warm washcloth from her forehead and feel her face.

"How are ya doing, Liz?" I ask still worried because she still feels hot.

She blinks her eyes, groans, and shakes her head telling me that she doesn't feel any better.

"Aww Baby, are you hungry at all? I think you should try to eat something" I respond. Hopefully if I can get some nice food into her, she might start feeling better. All she does is shrug, "I made some chicken noodle soup for you, here let me go warm it up"

I warm up the soup in the microwave then go into my room where I have all of the medicine. I grab the cough syrup that I gave her earlier this morning and grab my phone that I left on my dresser. Walking back into the kitchen I read the directions and see that I can give her another dose in half an hour, so maybe after her soup. The microwave beeps and I check the temperature so she doesn't burn her tongue. I get her a small bowl and a cup of water. Sitting her up I pull out a TV tray so that she doesn't spill on herself.

While she eats I turn on the TV to find some cartoons that she can watch. I come across one of my old favorite shows, _Tom and Jerry_ , looking at her, I see that she has taken interest in the show as well, so I leave it on.

Once she is done with her soup, I take the bowl and glass into the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher. She is laying down when I come back into the livingroom.

"Okay Sweetie," I start, "Do you wanna get some more rest, or watch TV for a little bit longer?" I have a feeling I already know the answer but I still don't know how bad she is feeling.

"I wanna watch TV" she gives me the answer I thought she was going to say.

"Okay Sweetheart, just tell me if it gets to be too much" I go grab her another cold towel to keep on her head.

Leaving her on the couch, I sit back down in the lazy boy and read the messages on my phone:

From Chris: _Hey Tris! I c Liz isnt at skool. Hopefully nothing 2 serious_

From Tobias: _Are you okay? Your class came but you aren't here :(_

I reply back to both of them that Lizzy is sick and I stayed to help her. I get a reply right back from Chris: _Awwww! :( thats 2 bad, Tell her 2 feel better!_

I don't reply back, but soon get a text from Tobias: _That sucks, do you guys need anything?_

I smile at his consideration and respond: _I think we're good here, but thanks:) I don't want you to come over and catch it as well._

Within a minute he answers: _Well I don't want you to get sick either:/_

 _It's okay, I have a good immune system._

 _Haha whatever you say, but I'll miss you:(_

 _I miss you too._

I don't get another response from him, so I assume that he has a class that started. I put down my phone and grab my book again. Maybe I'll finally finish it. Lizzy laughs at the way Jerry always outsmarts Tom, and I smile at her innocence. The rest of the afternoon flies by with her sleeping on and off. I keep up on her medicine so that she recovers quicker. She also continues to eat the chicken noodle soup. I finally end up finishing my book in between taking care of Lizzy.

She starts to feel better around dinner time, but I have a feeling that she is sick of eating chicken noodle soup, so instead I decide to have a mix of different soft foods for her. I bring her a banana, applesauce, and oatmeal.

"Thanks Auntie" she says after I bring her the food.

"No problem Lizard, you just keep feeling better. Okay?" I respond smoothing her crazy hair back on her head.

"Mmhmm. I am feeling better" she replies.

"That's good, darling"

She completes her meal and I take her dishes to the sink. After one more show, she has passed out again on the couch. I turn off the TV and pick her up the best I can. Carrying her to her room I get her ready for bed, changing her clothes and tucking her under the covers.

Seeming that I am pretty tired myself, I decide to also get ready for bed. I grab some of her clothes from the hamper and put them in the washer. Then I put the dishes in the dishwasher and start it so that they are ready for tomorrow. I turn off all of the lights and double check that the front door is locked. I take out my contacts and opt for a shower tonight rather than in the morning, so maybe I can sleep in a little bit longer.

It is only seven thirty when I get out of the shower, so I leave my hair down to air dry. I slip into gray sleep shorts and a black tanktop for bed. I put on my glasses before going to check on Lizzy one last time before I fall asleep. I find her sound asleep just where I left her. Content that she won't wake up for the night I shut her bedroom door and go back into mine.

I sit up in bed under the covers and scroll through Facebook. I see that my second cousin, Grace, back in Chicago is expecting, so I make sure to tell her congrats. I remember when I was younger we used to hang out but we went to different schools and didn't talk much after that. I saw her at family events and Dad's funeral but not recently. I think about taking a trip there soon to have a reunion but my thoughts are soon cut off when my phone starts vibrating in my hands.

I see that Tobias is calling me, causing me to smile when I answer, "Hi Tobias"

"Hello Sweetheart" My smile grows hearing one of his pet names for me come out, "What'cha doing?"

"Nothing much, just looking at Facebook"

"Sounds fun, how's Lizzy feeling?"

"I think she's better, she fell asleep after supper, so I put her to bed a little under an hour ago."

"Well that's good for her to get sleep"

"Hmm yeah," I yawn, pressing the hand not holding the phone to my mouth, "Sorry, long day"

His deep laugh drifts through the phone, "No worries, I understand. Hey, um I had a question about seeing your mom this weekend."

"Yeah?" I wonder if he's going to ask to go a different time, maybe something came up?

"Do you usually go down on Friday night and spend the night, or just Saturday for the day?"

"I go down on Saturday morning right when visiting hours start and stay until they are over usually. Is this a problem for you?"

"No, no I was just wondering. I still want to be there" I can hear the smile in his voice, and can't help but smile myself.

"Okay, visiting hours start at noon and go until 8pm, if you want to stay that long" I respond, unsure of how he wants to go about this.

"It's your mom Tris, I think it would be best for you to stay as long as you want, I'll enjoy my time. I'm looking forward to meeting your mother. I bet she's a great lady, especially if she raised such an amazing daughter like you" I blush at his words.

"She is great, I couldn't ask for better parents" I say before I think of what I'm saying, I suck in a breath, "Oh, I'm sor-"

"No, don't say you're sorry. I get it, I didn't have the greatest parents. But I'm so glad that you did" he responds like my words had no effect on him.

I stay silent, I just stepped on some toes, and I'm not sure what to say now.

He must sense this, "Tris, I promise that it doesn't bother me. It is in the past, and you have no idea how thankful I am that you didn't have a past like mine. I'm stronger now because of it. I wish it hadn't happened, but then I wouldn't be where I am today. Don't be afraid to say things like that around me, it's really okay."

"Okay," I whisper, "Just know that I'm glad that you're here, I couldn't imagine my life without you now that you're here."

"Right back at ya" I smile then yawn, but try to conceal it behind my hand before he hears it. "Alright old lady, I'll let you get to sleep"

"Hey! I'm not old! I just had a long day" I pretend pout knowing he was kidding. A weight lifts off of my chest knowing that he is joking after that serious moment, I feel bad that I said that without consideration of his background. But I am also glad that he cleared up the air about the parent subject.

He laughs, "I know, I know. I'm only joking Sweetheart. Get some rest and hopefully I see you tomorrow"

"Okay, I hope to see you too. Good night"

"Good night" Then he hangs up. I set my phone and glasses down on the night stand before I lay down completely in bed. Sleep finds me quickly as I dream about those deep blue eyes.


	20. Chapter 20

**It's been awhile, but thanks to all my readers for their patience. And happy first few days of school:)**

On Saturday, Tobias pulls up into the driveway at ten. I'm in the middle of washing the dishes from breakfast when I hear him come through the front door.

"Hi Four!" Lizzy says from her spot on the couch.

"Hey there Lizard! How's it going?" Tobias replies, I can imagine him ruffling her hair.

"We're going to see Grandma today!" she exclaims.

"I know! Do ya mind if I tag along with you guys?"

"I don't mind, but Aunty might"

"How come?"

"Sometimes she cries when we go" she says in a softer voice. After hearing that statement I dry my hands and start to head towards the living room.

"Why's that? Do you know?" Tobias asks concern filling his voice.

Right as I make it to the living room Lizzy answers, "I don't think Grandma is getting any better"

I freeze because of the harsh truth of those words. The words that I lie to myself about. I take a deep breath to control the emotions flowing through me. I clear my throat to get rid of the lump that has formed. They both turn toward me.

"Umm we should probably leave here soon" I give a small forced smile before turning back around to the kitchen. I hear footsteps following me. Tobias catches me around my waist once I make it into the kitchen and hugs me to his body.

Bringing his head down to my ear, he whispers, "You don't have to be strong all the time, it must be hard knowing that there's not much you can do to help her"

I drop my head forward, and choke back tears as I respond, "It is. I feel so helpless" I swipe away the one fallen tear. Taking yet another big breath I turn around in his arms and smile, giving him a chaste kiss on the lips. "Sorry you have to miss the Saturday out with the staff." Referring to the teacher outing that is happening later tonight.

"There's no place I'd rather be" He pulls me to him further, his arms now around my shoulders, his lips resting on my hairline. I let my arms rest around his waist, lining our bodies up.

I pull back and give him one last chaste kiss on the lips before continuing to the sink to finish the dishes. He walks up next to me and grabs the towel off the counter to help dry the dishes as I wash them. I give him a grateful smile. Quickly finishing the few bowls in the sink, I then put away the cups as he dries them.

Soon after we pack into my Honda, I told Tobias that I need the distraction of driving so I don't break down in tears on the road. I put the snack bag in the back seat with Lizzy, so we'll have something small to eat later. With Tobias next to me, we take off towards Iowa City. I keep the music on so Lizzy can hear the pop music playing, and so that it gives me another distraction. Ten minutes into the trip we are already on the highway. I get comfortable, my left elbow resting on the door with my hand on the wheel. I set the cruise at 72 mph and then rest my right hand on my thigh. I curl up my left leg and tuck in under my right, it is one of the only ways I can comfortably drive for long periods of time.

Twenty minutes later, with Lizzy singing in the backseat to some popular songs she knows, Tobias speaks, "What did Lizzy mean earlier?"

I bite my bottom lip, he knows I heard him, but I don't respond right away. "CMML is a disease that invades your blood. So her blood cells are abnormally shaped, and she has anemia, a shortage of red blood cells, that makes her tired and short of breath. There is no true cure for it, and many patients die within five to ten years of finding it. Mom has had it for around seven years already, they found it when I was 17."

He takes my hand where it is resting on my thigh, "Does that time start over when they made her better that one time, before it came back?"

"No, her symptoms stopped for a bit, but she was never cured of it because there is no cure. She is so strong, I think that she has only held on this long so that Caleb and I wouldn't be orphans at such a young age"

He brings my hand up to his lips, and kisses the back, before returning it back to my lap. But he doesn't let go of it. About ten minutes later he asks, "Is it hereditary? Do you have to be tested so that you don't get it?"

"No, it's not. It was just a mix up in her genes that caused it to form in her blood. It can't pass onto the child."

He nods his head, accepting my answer, seemingly relieved by it. We don't talk anymore about my mom, we just sit and listen to Lizzy singing in the back seat. We make the hour and a half drive in one trip without stopping, and I park in the parking ramp next to the hospital.

Knowing the trip by heart, we walk across the skywalk that connects the parking garage to the hospital. We make it to where Mom is staying while they did chemotherapy on the second floor.

"Grandma!" Lizzy exclaims as the door opens. She runs to my mom who has the hospital bed in a seated position. Lizzy jumps up next to Mom on the bed and hugs her tight. I take in the appearance of my mother, blue eyes like mine, her hair though falling out, is brown like Caleb's. She holds back her short, stringy hair with a red bandana. Also she wears a short sleeved, blue hospital gown so that they are able to run her IV without trouble. But right now she is done with chemo until tomorrow since they ran it earlier this morning. She has the quilt that her and Dad have had for as long as I can remember draped over her legs. I can tell that she has gotten weaker since the last time I saw her.

"Hi there Lizzy! How's my big girl?" Mom says, squeezing Lizzy with her frail arms.

"I'm good, Aunty says I'm growing again. Do I look taller?" She asks standing up beside the bed and putting her hand on her head to try and show how much taller.

"Oh, yes I see it. You do! You'll be as tall as your mother in no time!" Mom turns her attention to me, "Hello Beatrice, how are you?" she gives me a smirk and tilts her head towards Tobias.

I lean down and give her a hug, kissing both her cheeks like she does mine, "I'm great, Mom." I clear my throat and tug Tobias' hand to pull him closer to me, "Mom, I want to introduce you to my boyfriend, Four. Four this is my mother, Natalie"

"Hello Mrs. Prior, it is wonderful to meet you" Tobias says as he reaches out his hand.

"Hello Four, I've heard a lot about you," she takes his hand, but instead of shaking it, she pulls him down for a hug. He stumbles forward a bit not expecting the tug, but catches himself on the bed. He puts one arm around her and the other holds himself up on the bed.

When they pull away I can see a slight blush on Tobias' cheeks, I can't help but smile at his embarrassment. He looks my way and smiles shyly at me, I smile wider back and lean up to kiss his cheek.

"Aren't they cute?" Mom asks Lizzy who is still leaning against the bed.

"Mmhmm they're going to get married!" Lizzy squeals in return. My eyes widen and my face heats up in embarrassment.

Mom's eyes shoot to mine, I try to explain, "Wait, no. No. Th- that's not happening. We aren't" I point between Tobias and myself, "No not getting married. Nope." I pause, my face still burning hotly. "I mean not right now at least"

I feel Tobias chuckling silently next to me, he leans down and whispers in my ear, "Some day" Grabbing my hand, he gives it a squeeze.

I close my eyes and feel the heat still rising in my face. When I open them again I can see a twinkle in my mother's eye. I have a sense that she knows what he said.

"Well have a seat, stay awhile" my mom says, since we have been standing in awkward silence for a minute or so. Lizzy climbs up and takes a seat on her lap leaning against her. Tobias and I take the two chairs that are beside Mom's bed, but I am closer to her head.

"So Lizzy, how's school going? Have you made any friends yet?" Mom asks leaning back against the bed. I stop listening as I watch my mom. She is getting so weak and I can see it, she is already tired and it's not even noon yet. She acts so strong and puts on her tough persona, but I just want my mom to be better. I know that she says she is fine and she's happy with me just coming up to visit, but I want to do more. When I was looking to move closer to her, there were no jobs around that I could apply for, or they were already taken. I don't like the distance between us. My eyes well up as I think that she won't be there for my wedding, she won't be able to give me advice when I am pregnant, and my children will never get to know this amazing woman.

"Tris?" Mom's voice snaps me out of my depressing thoughts.

"Hmm?" I look up from where I apparently was staring at the ground, "Sorry, I spaced out a bit. What did you say?"

"How did you two meet?" she repeats gesturing to Tobias and I.

I smile and look at Tobias, "Well, we had the back to school night for the teachers I was getting introduced to all the teachers by Christina, Lizzy's teacher and one of my better friends." I wrinkle my nose thinking of when we met, laughing a little to myself, "Um, he was in the gym getting things ready when I first saw him. Chris did the introductions aaand that's how we met" I finish with a smile towards Tobias.

"Well I remember a lot of gawking… on your part" Tobias says as he nudges my arm.

My face heats up as I remember my side conversation with Chris, and how blank my mind was after looking at him. "I mean… how could I not. Look at you!" I point to him.

He chuckles and wraps his arm around my shoulders to pull me closer to him. He kisses the my temple, "I'm only teasing, Sweetheart. I'm pretty sure I was doing the same thing."

I hear my mom silently laughing at our banter. "Darling, I'm glad that you met someone important enough to bring to me." She holds out her hand for me to grab, and when I do, she gives it a soft squeeze.

"So am I, Mama"

We continue talking about anything and everything, from Lizzy's transition into my care to Tobias and I's latest date. Soon it begins to get closer to noon and Lizzy is starting to complain about being hungry. Even though she ate some of the snacks on the drive here, school has put her on a schedule with lunch around noon.

"I guess we should go get some food before someone over here starves" I say giving Lizzy a tickle on her tummy to make her squeal. I grab Lizzy from off of my mom and set her on her feet. "We'll be in the cafeteria if you need anything. Do you want us to grab you anything?"

"No, they should be bringing my food in soon. Don't go to the cafeteria, go get some good food downtown. Go outside and get some fresh air, walk around a bit. I'm not going anywhere."

"No, Mom. We should stay here and eat, we'll be back up as soon as we are done."

"Honey," Mom reprimes, "I'll be fine. You don't wanna stay in this stuffy room for so long. Let Lizzy stretch her legs somewhere. Go."

I roll my eyes at her still 'Momming' me, "Fine, we'll go somewhere else to eat."

"Good" she responds with a smile. I give her a hug and kiss to show I'm not upset with the situation.

I turn around after grabbing my purse to find Tobias standing next to the door with an amused look on his face. He opens the door for us and lets Lizzy and I pass through with his hand on my lower back.

Before he shuts the door behind him I hear him say, "We'll see you in a bit Mrs. Prior."

"What?" I ask him, because he still has the amused look on his face.

"You get your stubbornness from her," he replies with a chuckle.

I look away with a slight blush, "I don't know what you're talking about"

He laughs a bit harder, "I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." All I do to respond is shrug my shoulders.

We make our way back to the car and I drive us downtown a few blocks away. Parking on a side street out of the way of the madness of the downtown lunchtime on a Saturday. We stroll down the sidewalk Tobias and I hand in hand with Lizzy a few feet in front of us. We end up eating lunch at a little pub that was very family-friendly.

After a filling meal, Tobias decides that we should take a scenic route back to the car. Wandering around the downtown area was a great way to clear our minds with all of the cute shops and boutiques. Lizzy pointed out some of the more unusual items, like the puppets hanging outside one store or the moving train in the window of another. After being so full of energy this morning, Lizzy has surely wound down. She looks like she needs a nap soon.

"Maybe we should head back soon" I whisper to Tobias, pointing out that Lizzy is definitely slowing down.

He nods his head in agreement, "Hey Lizard"

Her head whips around at the sounds of her name being called, "Yeah?"

"Do you want a piggy-back ride?"

Her eyes light up as she excitedly nods her head yes. Tobias stops and crouches down and Lizzy comes around and hops on his back. He picks her up and then turns around in the direction of the car. The walk back is much farther than I thought, I must have really lost track of time. By the time we reach the car, Lizzy's head is resting on Tobias' shoulder and she is sound asleep. I grab her off of him and he spins around and takes her back because of the awkward way I had grabbed her.

Settling back in the car, I drive us back to the hospital. Before we make it back to the room I am stopped by my mother's oncologist, Dr. Lander. I let Tobias go on ahead with Lizzy still in his arms.

"Tris," he starts, pulling me into what looks like an office. Even at the tone of his voice, I know that I'm not going to like what he says, "I'm afraid that your mother has stopped responding to the treatment"

My heart drops as I hear the words, I knew that my mom was frail, but this was not what I was expecting. I must have zoned out in shock because the next thing I hear from the doctor is, ". . . has decided to stop all chemotherapy and just-"

"Wait, stop all chemotherapy? She wants to stop chemotherapy?" I ask hoarsely. And I realize that I have tears streaming down my face.

"Yes, she told me earlier that she found it best to just stop trying-"

"Hold on," I cut in again, "she _knew_ that it wasn't working?"

"Yes, after today we won't be seeing her for awhile. Without the treatment working, I'd say that she has about six months left"

My knees almost collapse hearing the timeframe he has given my mom. He finishes with an apology for not being able to do anything and guides me over to a chair before I fall. I sob for my mom, my heart aching for the family.

I stumble away from him and somehow find my way to the room. Taking a few breaths before I enter, I wipe my face of the tears and try to compose myself. Opening the door, I find Lizzy giggling at something Mom said, while Tobias just smiles. Their heads turn to me as I come in.

Tobias' smile immediately drops and he comes to stand in front of me, "What's wrong?"

Knowing my voice will fail me, all I do is shake my head. I don't want to answer and have my mom confirm that she is giving up. He pulls me to him, an arm around my back and one holding my head to his shoulder. A few tears leak out, but I try to hold them back for Lizzy's sake.

"It'll be okay" Tobias tries to sooth me, not even knowing why I am crying. I nod and pull away taking a seat on the edge of my mom's bed. She grabs my hand, knowing why I am in tears. Tugging my hand, she pulls me down into a hug. Smoothing back my hair and kissing my forehead she rocks us back and forth.

"I know this information is hard for you to take in" she starts, "it's hard for me as well."

"But why? Why just give up?" I sniffle.

"Darling, I'm not giving up, I'll keep fighting. Maybe not with the medicine, because we now know that it is not working anyway. But don't want to live out my days here in this hospital bed. I want to watch Caleb, Lizzy, and you. I want to see the woman you've grown to be, and I can't do that here."

"But I don't want you to go" I whisper.

"I haven't gone anywhere, I'm still here. And when I finally do go, I'll still be with you," she pats my chest over my heart, "right here"

I cry into her shoulder while she consoles me like only a mother can. Finally, when it feels like all of my tears have been shed, I look around and notice Tobias and Lizzy aren't in the room.

Looking at Mom in question, she responds, "They went to the kid area down the hall a little bit ago. I think it's time for you to go home, you look like you need some rest."

I gape at her for telling me I need rest, when she is the sick one, but she doesn't need more stress so I agreed. Getting both Lizzy and Tobias from down the hall, we all say goodbye to my mother before we leave for home. I let Tobias drive us home as I stare blankly out the window. My emotions drained from this journey.


End file.
